1 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: What's cracking my peppers. This is Robert Evans bringing away 2 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: classic introduction to the podcast Behind the Bastards, where we 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,080 Speaker 1: tell you everything you don't know about the worst people 4 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 1: in all of history. Now, I've decided to do this 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: blast from the past introduction because this week lads and ladies, 6 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: them's and fims, him bows and us. But whatever. Anyway, 7 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: we're doing a classic Behind the Bastards episode. We're getting 8 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: back to our roots. We're we're doing it, doing it 9 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: old school style, and we're talking about a Nazi. Yeah, 10 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: Matt Lee our guest for today. Matt, you're a podcaster, uh, 11 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: the host of the podcast Hood Yourself a Gun, which 12 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: show the Sopranos, and obviously, Matt as a comedian, you 13 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: understand that there's nothing more toxic than getting political. But 14 00:00:57,600 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: I want to ask you to just kind of riskly 15 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: delve into those waters and and and and answer me 16 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: this question. The Nazis are we like are we like warm? Cold? Lukewarm? 17 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,399 Speaker 1: Where what do you land on the Nazis? Honestly, bro 18 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: jury is still out on the Nazis. I think people 19 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: are starting to just like think, like, hey, maybe they 20 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: had some ideas a lot of people are starting to 21 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: think that way. Man. They're like, wait, wait, maybe some 22 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: of that stuff about the Jews Connor Rings true. Um 23 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:36,400 Speaker 1: j K, I'm anti ant anti anti Nazis. Maybe Amtley, 24 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: How would you like to learn about the worst Nazi? Oh? Man, 25 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,199 Speaker 1: I thought I've Every time I come on, I feel 26 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: like I've learned about the worst Nazi. And I'm like, well, 27 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,320 Speaker 1: we're done with the Holly Coast. This is when we 28 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,560 Speaker 1: talk about the Nazis, and we talked about the Holocaust. Obviously, 29 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: there's a couple of different categories of worst. There's the 30 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: guys who are actually like out in the field doing 31 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: war crimes with our actual bodies against the people's actual bodies. 32 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: And there's the guys who are like organizing it, doing 33 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: the paper pushing that made it possible. There's the propagandists 34 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 1: who got everyone riled up. I tend to find those 35 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,880 Speaker 1: latter two categories more interesting, right, because there's always just 36 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: like thugg thuggish pieces of ship who will hurt people. Um. 37 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: The guy we're talking about today is kind of both 38 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:25,639 Speaker 1: straddles both those lines. And as a spoiler, this is 39 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: a guy who got written up by the SS for 40 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: violence during the Siege of Warsaw. That is that is 41 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 1: the level of level of Nazi we're talking the s 42 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: s was like, this guy's making us look bad. This 43 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,959 Speaker 1: guy is really the Jews right now? Yeah, I mean 44 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,519 Speaker 1: I hate the Jews, but holy shit, she calms the 45 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 1: fun down. Wow. Yeah, we get it. We get it's 46 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: the Jews are bad. Just we're killing these people. But 47 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:00,399 Speaker 1: good lord, I understand you want to do a dollar now, 48 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,520 Speaker 1: but there's a process. Okay, we're trying to do it 49 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: step by step. My god, mind, god mind, got Uh. 50 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,920 Speaker 1: There's nothing like making fun of a German accent. Um. 51 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,080 Speaker 1: It is good. You never have to ask for permission 52 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: to know you're officially I think for the next thousand 53 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: of the thousand years, Uh, everyone can just do a 54 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: German accent and make fun of them and for their 55 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: history whenever you disagree with them on some random thing. 56 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:30,720 Speaker 1: That is the punishment instead of a thousand year Reich 57 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: for a thousand years, we all get to be a 58 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: little racist gets German people. But it's okay, they're going 59 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: to complain a thousand year accent right where he's like, 60 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: I'm German. Look at Mr Crimes. Yeah, I like to 61 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 1: climes and mountains. I don't like Jews, but I lost 62 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: the whole war where look at my leader host and 63 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: in my decision to invade Russia is out vinta cults. Yeah, 64 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: I plan out for his in my hat. Look at me. 65 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 1: I don't know what. Do they have feathers in their hats? 66 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: I feel like at some point, yeah, feathers and that 67 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: idle this flower whatever. Anyway, So we're talking about Oscar 68 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: Durrell Wanger today. That's his name. Ridiculous name, ridiculous name, um, 69 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: but also quite possibly the worst personal history of bloodshed 70 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: that I've heard about a Nazi having. Um. He is 71 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: a real, a staggering piece of shit, said Oscar Durrell Wanger. 72 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: Durrell Wanger, ridiculous name. We call him. Oscar is a 73 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: grouch because he's so grouchy. He's a very grumpy man. 74 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 1: He's a he's a thug and and just a gross thug. 75 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: But he's also an, unlike most of the thugs, a 76 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,040 Speaker 1: key part of like the organizing machinery of genocide. He 77 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: didn't just take live's hand to hand. He helped orchestrate 78 00:04:55,640 --> 00:05:00,280 Speaker 1: mass killings um and and made sort of paula see 79 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: for Nazi field units doing genocide that was adopted on 80 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: a pretty wide scale. But before we talk about him, 81 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: we got to get into one of my favorite topics, 82 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: Matt Leeb hitlerology. Yes, oh yeah, So a lot of 83 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:15,159 Speaker 1: people study Hitler, a lot of a lot of Hitler 84 00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: stands out there. Um, and there's a I'm a big 85 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: hitler ologistlogist too. Yeah. I've decided that I would not 86 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: go back in time to kill him. Uh really yeah, 87 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: because if you think about it by now, like Hitler 88 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: has got to be a fucking expert at killing time travelers, right, 89 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: that is a good point, because that's all he does 90 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: all day. So every time traveler who's gone back in 91 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: time has died at the hands of Hitler because we 92 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: still know who he is. Yeah. I feel like it's 93 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: a trick to get the Jews to accidentally holocaust themselves 94 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: by like inventing time travel and then dying at the 95 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: hands of Adolf Hitler. Like he has a here's a 96 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: little room that they all go to and his actual 97 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: secret plan. See I had I actually have an idea 98 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: for a TV show. I shouldn't be sharing this with 99 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: the open Internet, But scientists go back in time, and 100 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: they reverse the polarity of Hitler's brain and they make 101 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: him reverse Hitler. And then after that it's a matchmaking show, 102 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: and he's just trying to get Jewish couples to get 103 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: together and have babies to like undo all of his crimes. 104 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: Like a Hitler yenta, like a Hitler love boat. Yeah, right, exactly, 105 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:27,960 Speaker 1: match makeup, make me I love that. Yeah, probably will 106 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: be the Yeah. Probably shouldn't. Shouldn't say that on the 107 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: open Internet, but I did so amongst people who are 108 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: like Hitler nerds, which nobody who does this professionally calls themselves. 109 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,599 Speaker 1: But I called her that. Um. There's a big debate 110 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,520 Speaker 1: as to whether or not Hitler was what some academics 111 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 1: call a weak dictator. Now, this term, when it gets 112 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: kind of like translated, particularly academics, is sort of un 113 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: It gets people kind of interpreted the wrong way when 114 00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: the people who are the academics who are calling him 115 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:01,680 Speaker 1: a weak dictator are not arguing that he wasn't influential 116 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: or central to Nazi crimes. Instead, it's more of a 117 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,039 Speaker 1: debate about the way in which he exercised influence and 118 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: the way in which the the actual structural ways in 119 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: which he contributed to the Holocaust. Right, there's a debate 120 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: about and and basically, so one side of this they're 121 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: called intentionalists, and intentionalist historians argue that Hitler was quote 122 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: master in the Third Reich, essentially a micro manager who 123 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: exercised tremendous direct control and gave specific orders that are 124 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: behind many of the regime's crimes. Now, the other side 125 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: of this debate, they're called generally either structuralists or functionalists, right, 126 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: and these historians think that the structure of the Nazi 127 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: Party and the Nazi state actually hamstrung Hitler from exercising 128 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: direct power, and thus his influence in things like the 129 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: Holocaust was more a result of his rhetoric and the 130 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:51,960 Speaker 1: culture that he helped build and helped have take over 131 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: Germany rather than actual specific minute orders that he issued. Right. Interesting, Okay, Yeah, 132 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: so like the George W. Bush theory where everyone's right, 133 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: he's not really were criminal because he's too stupid. It 134 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:06,320 Speaker 1: was Cheney who's the real war criminal. And I'm like, 135 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: why not? Both yeah, And I do want to say 136 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:12,120 Speaker 1: most of the people who are making the argument that 137 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: like he was a weak dictator are not trying to 138 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,080 Speaker 1: mitigate his crimes. They're just trying to understand specifically, how 139 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: did the Holocaust occur and how did the Nazi Party 140 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: do the crimes that it did? Right, was Hitler? Was 141 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: Hitler sitting there being like and you go killed and 142 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,560 Speaker 1: you go or was it more that like, well, he 143 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: he puts these people in power, and he builds this 144 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: system where all of these guys are kind of competing 145 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: to be the worst Nazi to rise in this party. 146 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: And it was that sort of thing, right, So it's 147 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: not I don't think most of them are not trying 148 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,240 Speaker 1: to mitigate his crimes. They're more just trying to be 149 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: specific about And I'm not taking, by the way, a 150 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 1: side here as to who is still calling I'm Hitler lovers, 151 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: So the Hitler lovers Hitler. Yeah, some of these guys 152 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: are Jewish, so he probably shouldn't. Well, you're trying to 153 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: some it's complicated because some of them are Holocaust deniers. Um, 154 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: It's it's messy Hitler. When you when you really get 155 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: deep into Hitler studies, it gets kind of messy. And 156 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,360 Speaker 1: part of one of the reasons why there's a debate, 157 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: Right if you look at a guy like Putin nobody's 158 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: going to argue that Putin is not a strong dictator 159 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,680 Speaker 1: and that he exercises direct personal control over what his 160 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: regime does. Right. We know right now that he's like 161 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:28,080 Speaker 1: giving field orders to his commanders in Ukraine directly, which 162 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,520 Speaker 1: is like that strong dictator stuff, right, and then is 163 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: certainly something Hitler did from a military standpoint. No one 164 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: really argues that he wasn't a strong dictator as regards 165 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: his control of the military machine. In terms of the 166 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: the architecture of genocide, you know, how do we how 167 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: do we categorize him? Um? And And part of the 168 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: reason why there's this debate is that Hitler knew that 169 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: he was committing a genocide um and was pretty careful 170 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: about not having ship written down right, Like he he's 171 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: the stringer Bell of this where he's like the fucking 172 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: take no, it's yeah, motherfuck, are you taking notes on 173 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:06,920 Speaker 1: a cuminal conspiracy? Although there are a lot of notes 174 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: on his criminal conspiracy, He's just kind of coy about stuff. 175 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: So there's I just want to say shout out to 176 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,920 Speaker 1: you for bringing a stringer Bell reference with because we're 177 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:17,839 Speaker 1: always looking for it. We're now covering the wire pot 178 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,160 Speaker 1: yourself the wire is the new show. So if you 179 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:26,960 Speaker 1: like Stringer Bell references and you're behind the bastards, sorry, 180 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: I had to plug. I have a baby coming. I 181 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: need to plug. So Hitler, I mean, yeah, again, quite 182 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 1: careful about There's not like a piece of paper where 183 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: Hitler says, hey, guys, I want you to start doing 184 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: death camp ship right, Hey guys, turn Auschwitz into a 185 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: factory for murder. Right. We don't have like Hitler's signing 186 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,840 Speaker 1: that piece of paper. Obviously, again the spoilers. He knew 187 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: about all of it. He was very involved in all 188 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:52,440 Speaker 1: of it. But he's not like sitting down and being 189 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: like and everybody make sure to note that I Hitler 190 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:56,320 Speaker 1: told you to do this, because it's a it's a 191 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: pretty serious crime. He's committing, yes, and he knows it, 192 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: and and it's it's the funk up thing is it's 193 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,239 Speaker 1: like the foundation of I think a lot of Holocaust 194 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 1: denialism is the fact that they were so secretive about 195 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 1: the entire project. So you you know, to this day 196 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,319 Speaker 1: there are people who are falling for Hitler's fucking bullshit, 197 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: and and there is there's a whole strain of people 198 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: who are not quite Holocaust deniers who will say, yeah, 199 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: the Holocaust happened and it was bad. They'll also say 200 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:27,160 Speaker 1: stuff like it wasn't as bad as the bombing of 201 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:29,800 Speaker 1: German cities. There wasn't bad, questions, it was all nonsense. 202 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 1: But then they'll be like, but Hitler didn't direct it, right, like, 203 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:35,520 Speaker 1: we have no evidence. This was just things like this 204 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: is these are like things that there's weird Nazis out there, right, 205 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 1: it's anyway. So the the actual phrase wicked weak dictator 206 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: comes from a historian named Hans Momson, who argued alongside 207 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: other historians that the Fewer was actually a weaker leader 208 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:52,920 Speaker 1: in a lot of ways than previous German rulers. Right 209 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,520 Speaker 1: in terms of the way he exercised power. He has 210 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,559 Speaker 1: less direct power than a guy like the Kaiser did. Right. 211 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:04,000 Speaker 1: That's he's no kids, and and what he's saying is 212 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,120 Speaker 1: that he's not again, Momson, as far as I know, 213 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: is not trying to deny the Holocaust. What he's saying 214 00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 1: is that the way the Nazi state was constructed is 215 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: all of these guys who are basically gangsters come in, 216 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: they destroy a lot of the existing German bureaucracy and 217 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: they replace it with the nest of like a this 218 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,640 Speaker 1: web basically of of conflicting criminal gangs that are all 219 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,679 Speaker 1: fighting each other and sometimes killing each other, and that 220 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,839 Speaker 1: makes it hard for Hitler to direct aspects of state 221 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: personally in a way other autocrats are able to do. 222 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: This was not done to the military, which is part 223 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:39,199 Speaker 1: of why Hitler was able to like exercise so much 224 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:41,320 Speaker 1: direct control of the military is a lot of the 225 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,320 Speaker 1: old structure of the Imperial Military was still in place. 226 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 1: Um Now, this line of reasoning is again it's not 227 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: what Moms is saying is not inherently unreasonable. That said, 228 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: it's also probably worth noting that it is unsettlingly similar 229 00:12:56,600 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 1: to justifications that German citizens at the time, like during 230 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:04,200 Speaker 1: the Third Reich, made for how bad Nazi officials were. 231 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: Because Hitler by thirty eight is very popular, but the 232 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:10,440 Speaker 1: Nazis are bad at governing and a bunch of ship 233 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: keeps going wrong that they were supposed to have fixed. 234 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:15,840 Speaker 1: So there's this attitude among citizens in the right that like, 235 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:19,320 Speaker 1: Hitler is great, he doesn't know about how fucked up 236 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: some of these guys are. Right, he's too trusting, he's 237 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: too gentle natured. Hitler he would never expect people to 238 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:27,760 Speaker 1: do crimes. That's the thing about Hitler is that he 239 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:30,880 Speaker 1: was always a very tolerant guy. You know, he's just 240 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,800 Speaker 1: very nice, very sweet, non confrontational. I think that's a 241 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 1: big thing about Hitler, the man who anti fascists with 242 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,000 Speaker 1: a whip and bar fights. I'm a bit of an introvert. 243 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,600 Speaker 1: I don't like confrontation, don't like direct conflict. Yeah, I 244 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:52,320 Speaker 1: just kind of want everyone to be cool and friends. Um, 245 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:56,520 Speaker 1: it's yeah again. And this is so part of what's 246 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,120 Speaker 1: gnarlis that this is an important debate to have if 247 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 1: you're trying to understand what happened during the Third Reich, 248 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,440 Speaker 1: because it's it's not there's nothing wrong with saying well, 249 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:06,800 Speaker 1: because of the structure of the Nazi Party and how 250 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,079 Speaker 1: like criminal and incompetent a lot of these guys were, 251 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: Hitler was not able to exercise the kind of direct 252 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: control in domestic policies that some people expected, and as 253 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: a result, a lot of the early things, a lot 254 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 1: of things that were done by the Nazi state were 255 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:22,040 Speaker 1: things that were just sort of like done by guys 256 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: that he trusted to do stuff, and so he wasn't direct, 257 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 1: which is not saying he's not ultimately responsible because like 258 00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: if I were to hire someone on the cool Zone 259 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: media and I were to say, like, you have a 260 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:35,240 Speaker 1: fifty thou dollar budget for that can only be spent 261 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: on bullets, but I'm not going to tell you what 262 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:39,120 Speaker 1: to do with them, and then that person goes and 263 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: commits crimes, I'm responsible to some extent, right, Like, yeah, 264 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: I mean it'd be weird if you were just like, hey, 265 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 1: come join my podcasting company and I'll give you fifty bullets. Yeah, 266 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 1: no microphones. Here's a list of people I dislike, Right, 267 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 1: I wouldn't be saying go kill these people, but it 268 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: wouldn't be my fault, right, Like, yes, um, I think 269 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: in that case. Again, one of the conflicts here is 270 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: that a number of people who are proponents of the 271 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: weak dictator hypothesis are fucking fascists, including a guy named 272 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: David Irving. Irving was at one point a semi respected 273 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: scholar of German history. Kurt Vonnegutt quotes him in uh 274 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: in a slaughter House five because one of the things 275 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,240 Speaker 1: Irving did is he he would write about how bad 276 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: the Allied bombing campaigns were, and he seems to have 277 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: exaggerated the death count substantially, but they weren't pretty bad. 278 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,119 Speaker 1: So there was a time in which a guy like Vonnegutt, 279 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: definitely not a Nazi, would be like, oh, yeah, I 280 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: was at Dresden. I know it was bad. I I 281 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 1: this guy is saying the numbers are even worse than 282 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 1: I knew. That seems credible to me, and so Irving 283 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: as as at one point semi respected, and then kind 284 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 1: of turns into like it now he is a hard 285 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: core Holocaust and I are right, and I guess he 286 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: probably was at the time, but it wasn't immediately obvious. 287 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,040 Speaker 1: So you you do run into people like Vonnegut who 288 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:04,560 Speaker 1: like sited Irving fifty something years sixty years ago or 289 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,040 Speaker 1: whatever before he was a Nazi, and then it kind 290 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:09,400 Speaker 1: of comes out and it's kind of tarnished Vonneget a 291 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: little bit, even though it really shouldn't have. It was 292 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: not It's not unreasonable for a guy who's sitting in 293 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: Dressden during the fire bombing to well, that was pretty bad. 294 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: The problem is, you know, Kurt Vonnegut didn't have um 295 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,200 Speaker 1: retweet stone equal endorsements on exactly. That would have solved 296 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,280 Speaker 1: the proud, would have solved the people like no, no, 297 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:30,080 Speaker 1: no, no no, no, he's cool. He's just he's not involved 298 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: with the whole Holocaust and iing thing, but he does 299 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: think that Dresden was pretty pretty bad bombing. Yeah. Now, 300 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: as is whenever you've got like a case where someone 301 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:42,720 Speaker 1: like me who's not a historian is saying, here's these 302 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: camps in this like massive historical debate, the reality is 303 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 1: near rely always that actual credible experts kind of like 304 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: wind up more in the middle than anything else. That said, 305 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: it's probably fair to say that the intentionalist interpretation of 306 00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 1: things um is more spected among serious academics. And it's 307 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:05,600 Speaker 1: like Klaus Hildebrand will sum up that argument by saying 308 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: that national socialism was basically Hitlerrism, right, And there's a 309 00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: lot to back up the fact that there was nothing 310 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:15,920 Speaker 1: to this ideology and there's nothing to this government beyond 311 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: this kind of central focus on Hitler as a person, 312 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,040 Speaker 1: just straight and the fact that all resistance pretty much 313 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:27,480 Speaker 1: collapses when Hitler shoots himself is not uncompelling evidence that right, like, 314 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:31,320 Speaker 1: you can make a strong case here very uh kill 315 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:34,840 Speaker 1: the night King, energy and everyone else dissolves. But that said, 316 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,199 Speaker 1: it's also worth noting that like you know, we're not 317 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:39,959 Speaker 1: done with Nazism today, and like a lot of a 318 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: lot of fascists today are base have based their own 319 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:48,320 Speaker 1: ideologies heavily on nationalist socialist principles. Millions of assholes all 320 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:51,480 Speaker 1: over the world are drawn to aspects of the political 321 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: philosophy that animated the Nazis, even if they're not waiving 322 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:59,040 Speaker 1: an actual swastika themselves, Um, they're usually they're just wearing 323 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,760 Speaker 1: a blue Lives Matter. Yeah, that, and you can see 324 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 1: that as evidencely like, well, maybe the functionalists have a point, right, Like, yeah, 325 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,679 Speaker 1: you know it was not just hitler Ism, there was 326 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: something more to it. Now. The story of the man 327 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,239 Speaker 1: that we're going to discuss today kind of lies at 328 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: the heart of this debate because Hitler is a factor. 329 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:17,880 Speaker 1: And you can say in the same way that when 330 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: I hire that guy and give him thousands and thousands 331 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:23,000 Speaker 1: of bullets, I am responsible for what he does with them. 332 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: Hitler is responsible to some extent for every murder that 333 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,760 Speaker 1: this guy is going to commit, but his direct fingerprints 334 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,280 Speaker 1: aren't really on any of it. Right. Hitler never says, hey, Oscar, 335 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,400 Speaker 1: I want you to go do some real fucked up ship. Um, 336 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:40,640 Speaker 1: but also ready to put in work. Oscar Hitler absolutely 337 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: said send that guy Oscar out to do the worst 338 00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:46,160 Speaker 1: things anyone's ever done. Right, He's a real go getter, 339 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:49,800 Speaker 1: he's got that entrepreneurial spirit. And this is all. There's 340 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,480 Speaker 1: a second debate that's kind of broader than the Hitler debate, 341 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:57,440 Speaker 1: which is are the physical culprits of the Holocaust willing executioners? 342 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: Like did the Germans just raise up a narration of 343 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:03,159 Speaker 1: real assholes who are willing to do horrible things? Or 344 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 1: were they ordinary Germans? And it just turns out that 345 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:08,520 Speaker 1: normal people are a pretty malleable when it comes to 346 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:12,640 Speaker 1: war crimes. And again, the actual truth here is always 347 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,040 Speaker 1: going to be from credible people. Well, it's kind of both, 348 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:16,439 Speaker 1: and it kind of depends on which group of them 349 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: you're talking about one period of it, right, Um, anyway, 350 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,080 Speaker 1: that's all just interesting context, I think for sort of 351 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,159 Speaker 1: the philosophical debates that are going on behind all of 352 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,080 Speaker 1: the war crimes were about to talk about, because I 353 00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:29,200 Speaker 1: don't just want to be like, yeah, it sounds like 354 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:34,359 Speaker 1: the twenty minute preface where it's like, we do not 355 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:39,119 Speaker 1: say that Hitler wasn't responsible for what we're just saying 356 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:42,719 Speaker 1: there were some people who went above and beyond the 357 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: call of yeah exactly, and and and also just like 358 00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:50,439 Speaker 1: when you're trying to understand how genocides occur, it's important 359 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:54,040 Speaker 1: to understand that it's like structurally, a number of overlapping 360 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:58,120 Speaker 1: factors usually come together, right. Um, Anyway, I just wanted 361 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: to talk about that. You can read a lot more 362 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,479 Speaker 1: about this. We'll have sources wherever we put sources, I'm 363 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: sure at some point. Um, but there's a bunch of 364 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,159 Speaker 1: there's a bunch of books about people write entire books 365 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: arguing over this. Um. I am not again trying not 366 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: to come down on either side because basically, with the 367 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:16,840 Speaker 1: exception of that Holocaust, and I are most of the 368 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: people involved in the debate on both sides no more 369 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,359 Speaker 1: about this than I do so. Oscar Darrel Wanger was 370 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: born on September eight in Wurzburg, Swabia, Swabia, which is 371 00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:33,120 Speaker 1: a ridiculous name for a place in southern Germany because 372 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:37,520 Speaker 1: they all came from really just ridiculous sounding places. Yeah, 373 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,040 Speaker 1: they come from fucking Swabia. And then they hear there's 374 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:42,400 Speaker 1: a city called crack Ow, which is a dope name 375 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:47,120 Speaker 1: from like, well, we gotta fucking take that ship. Warsaw. 376 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,440 Speaker 1: What a cool name. And we're over here with Stuttgart. 377 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:57,240 Speaker 1: Goddamnita is a name for a city, and I gotta 378 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:00,679 Speaker 1: be honest. Moscow pretty cool fucking name for a like 379 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: Stalin grad don't like Stalin pretty dope name like. And 380 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:12,080 Speaker 1: one of you guys got see his munichue skin Flagging's 381 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 1: just gotten come ons like vomiting towns filled with vomiting. 382 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,080 Speaker 1: That's why they did it. That's why. Yeah, that's why 383 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 1: they're bad. The secret to Hitler's madness is he grew 384 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,920 Speaker 1: up in a fucking shitty little town with a stupid name. 385 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:36,120 Speaker 1: Matt's here for this episode. Well, you know, I just 386 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,720 Speaker 1: I like to keep it silly when talking Holocaust. Yeah, 387 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,639 Speaker 1: you gotta, you gotta keep it light right, Yeah, fucking 388 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: brown now I'm in. Was the name of his fucking birthplace? 389 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: What stupid? Anyway, Um, Matt, you know what's not stupid? 390 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,160 Speaker 1: What the products and services that support this podcast? Nine? 391 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 1: We're back. So we just talked about how Oscar Durrell 392 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 1: Wanger born eighteen, his family moves from the stupid named 393 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:16,080 Speaker 1: town to a slightly less stupid named town, Stuttgart Germany 394 00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: and nineteen hundred, which is where my mom was born 395 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,119 Speaker 1: quite a bit laer Um. Yes uh. She told us 396 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: later later in life, was like, yeah, you actually could 397 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: have gotten German citizenship, And we were like, what the funk? 398 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:33,640 Speaker 1: Why didn't she do? What the hell? I could have 399 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 1: to fucking passports? You know what kind of ship I 400 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:40,320 Speaker 1: could get up to. I could have had healthcare? Yeah. Um. 401 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,120 Speaker 1: So he moves to Stuttgart nineteen hundred when he's five, 402 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:45,480 Speaker 1: and then to the city of Esslingen in nineteen o 403 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: five when he's ten. His family are probably you would 404 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:52,119 Speaker 1: probably say they're solidly middle class, right uh. Durrell Wanger 405 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: would later write that his parents were quote neither poor 406 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:58,920 Speaker 1: nor wealthy, and describe his father as calm, intelligent, and frugal. 407 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:03,720 Speaker 1: He describes their familial relations as peaceful. Now, when you're 408 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: talking about a guy who does all the horrible things 409 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,119 Speaker 1: that he does, and this guy is like, like the 410 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:12,520 Speaker 1: number of just I don't want to say this like flippantly, 411 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: but like the number of people that he personally raped 412 00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: could fill like a large town, Like like like, really 413 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,200 Speaker 1: bad guy. You expect something horrific in his childhood. I 414 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,160 Speaker 1: think most people do because of probably because of unreason, 415 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 1: and it's one of those things we don't have much detail. Right. 416 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,080 Speaker 1: His youth occurs in the middle of like you know, 417 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,919 Speaker 1: he he's born in a period where there's not a 418 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,800 Speaker 1: tremendous amount of record keeping, where it is not abnormal 419 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,919 Speaker 1: to hit kids. But he doesn't talk about there being 420 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,639 Speaker 1: any abuse in his childhood. I think there might be 421 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,480 Speaker 1: a belief among people that like, well, there probably wasn't. 422 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,200 Speaker 1: He just didn't see it as as normal. But it's 423 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: also entirely possible this guy just had a pretty good childhood. 424 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: It's it's interesting. Yeah, you really never know. I do 425 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,959 Speaker 1: feel like, you know, nowadays, we are always trying to 426 00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:07,240 Speaker 1: understand the cycles of violence, especially sexual violence, and you 427 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: know how that can kind of like, uh be hereditary, 428 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,520 Speaker 1: like generation after generation. You know, one person gets sexually 429 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: abused as a child, and then as an adult they 430 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: become a perpetrator. Um. But I'm perfectly willing to believe 431 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:27,600 Speaker 1: that some people are just ship are born monsters and uh, 432 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,159 Speaker 1: you know, hey, it's then I'm not sure that's what's Well, 433 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,360 Speaker 1: we'll talk about this guy's backstory because it's interesting. Um, 434 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,880 Speaker 1: but I did want to look into like, well, how 435 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,720 Speaker 1: common is child abuse in like Germany and at the 436 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,520 Speaker 1: class level that he grew up in, because I wanted 437 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,280 Speaker 1: to see, like, is there maybe something more there? And 438 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,760 Speaker 1: it kind of his youth actually occurs in the midst 439 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: of this massive debate across the nation of Germany as 440 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: to whether or not you should hit kids, like this 441 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: is an actual serious debate, and it's it's obviously a 442 00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,640 Speaker 1: good one to have, right if the norm was hitting 443 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:01,960 Speaker 1: kids for a while, and this is not a German thing, right, 444 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,679 Speaker 1: the norm has always been hitting kids, and most cultures, right, 445 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: most cultures, by by number of people, smack the ship 446 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: out of kids every now and again. Right, So again 447 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,320 Speaker 1: not good. But Germany is actually having a debate and 448 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:15,600 Speaker 1: we're we are still having this debate, so they're ahead 449 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,200 Speaker 1: of us about like should you do this at all? Now? 450 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: Willhell mind? Germany? Which is you know, Germany, the the 451 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,440 Speaker 1: only Germany that exists prior to the Weimar Republic, because 452 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,400 Speaker 1: it's not an old country, had long embraced a concept 453 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,480 Speaker 1: that had existed in the region for a while called 454 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:36,280 Speaker 1: jesus Zuktigung sprect, which means to rear by hitting, and 455 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,679 Speaker 1: it was generally interpreted as referring to the use of 456 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: physical compulsion to ensure proper behavior and maintain order. Right now, 457 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:44,360 Speaker 1: this is both like this is how you raise little 458 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:46,440 Speaker 1: kids and also like you're in the military, this is 459 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,440 Speaker 1: how you trained soldiers. Right You're you're on a work 460 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,440 Speaker 1: floor in a factory, like, yeah, guy foxed up, you 461 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: hit him, right, Like this is that that's that was 462 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,119 Speaker 1: a pretty common thing. But in the late eighteen hundreds 463 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,720 Speaker 1: and early nineteen hundreds, and it's important to note, Germany 464 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,679 Speaker 1: is like the medical superpower of the world in this 465 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:05,479 Speaker 1: period up like when World War One hits, Germany has 466 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,359 Speaker 1: probably the best doctors and the best medical hospitals on 467 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 1: the planet. Germany is where you fucking go if you 468 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,200 Speaker 1: want like a fancy as medical education. They're the best 469 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 1: at it. So and this includes like psychiatry right obviously, 470 00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: like Freud and Ship like they are on the cutting 471 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,800 Speaker 1: edge of this very early, like the kind of what 472 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: will become developmental and child psychology and stuff. And in 473 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,560 Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, there's all 474 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,399 Speaker 1: these debates and these like journal argues arguing about these 475 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,159 Speaker 1: cases that journalists will write about of child abuse in 476 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: schools of like teachers beating the ship out of students, 477 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,080 Speaker 1: and whether or not this is a good idea. I think. 478 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: There's an article in the Journal for Central European History 479 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,240 Speaker 1: by Sace Elder that summarizes a nineteen oh three case 480 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: from Bavaria. Quote, a young male tutor, Andreas Dippold, had 481 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,720 Speaker 1: beaten his young charges so badly that one succumbed to 482 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:58,159 Speaker 1: his mistreatment. So this teacher in nineteen o three, and 483 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,840 Speaker 1: this is when when Oscar is eight beats a student 484 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,320 Speaker 1: to death, and it goes very viral. It enrages the 485 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: entire country, and it seized upon. Part of why it 486 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: pisses people off as there's an activist named Elizabeth Vaughan Ertzon, 487 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,520 Speaker 1: and whenever there's a Vaughn in a German name, it 488 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: means she's a member of the nobility, right, So that's 489 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,360 Speaker 1: part of why she's able to be an activist. She's 490 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: independently wealthy. And Elizabeth bond arts and founds the Society 491 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: for the Protection of Children from Mistreatment and Exploitation, which 492 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:28,119 Speaker 1: is an organ again nineteen oh three, and um, you know, 493 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,920 Speaker 1: basically goes to war over this, and I'm gonna quote 494 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: again from that same paper the case demonstrated. Von Ertsen 495 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,399 Speaker 1: wrote that while torture had been abolished for adults, it 496 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,160 Speaker 1: was still widely practiced on children. One of the chief 497 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: causes of child abuse, according to von Ertson, was the 498 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,679 Speaker 1: claim to so called zuktigung sprect the right to use 499 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,800 Speaker 1: corporal punishment. Because of the defenselessness of children, it has 500 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,399 Speaker 1: become customary to exercise on them the right to use 501 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: corporal punishment, even where it does not exist. She wrote. 502 00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: A host of people, including tutors, governesses, and babysitters, claim 503 00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,080 Speaker 1: the right, but how far the right to corporal punishment 504 00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,920 Speaker 1: is transferable is entirely an open question. Curiously, von Urson 505 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,439 Speaker 1: asserted that there was both an objectively existing right to 506 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:08,159 Speaker 1: use corporal punishment and that there was no consensus on 507 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,680 Speaker 1: where that right lay. Again, she's not saying that you 508 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,800 Speaker 1: should never slap a kid or never spank a kid. 509 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:15,439 Speaker 1: She's saying we're doing it too much, and they used 510 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: to be to a debate about who is allowed to 511 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,159 Speaker 1: do this right um, which is again pretty advanced for 512 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: his it's time. But also she is still saying that, well, yeah, 513 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:29,160 Speaker 1: sometimes you're gonna hit kids, of course everybody occasionally, which, 514 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,320 Speaker 1: again to be clear on the podcast, stance always bad 515 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,359 Speaker 1: and don't this is a good thing, right with it 516 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:38,400 Speaker 1: within the context of like every adult should be able 517 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:40,120 Speaker 1: to beat the ship out of kids whenever they want, 518 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: a woman being like, hey, that's fucked up. We need 519 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 1: to have a serious societal conversation about who and when 520 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,280 Speaker 1: it's okay to like smack a kid. That's a that's 521 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: a positive move, it's a step in the right direction. 522 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,760 Speaker 1: We're not We're not having that discussion in the US. 523 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: I don't think I think people are just like, yeah, 524 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,600 Speaker 1: be a kid who gives a ship right there, kids 525 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: a factory. I'm fine, which I just said earlier, But 526 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,160 Speaker 1: I am fine. No, don't beat your kids, yeah, and 527 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 1: says Elder writes quote. Many popular and some scholarly depictions 528 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:13,880 Speaker 1: of German child rearing in the Wilhelmine period assumed that 529 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: methods were particularly harsh and brutal. Yet there is ample 530 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: reason to doubt the stereotype of the harsh, brutal parent 531 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,240 Speaker 1: more ready to strike a child than embrace it. School 532 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,600 Speaker 1: discipline and other national contexts raises doubts about the extent 533 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: to which German practices were exceptionally violent. Moreover, investigations of 534 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: parenting advice literature have suggested that while their were concerns 535 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,960 Speaker 1: about the inadequacy of soft mothers to adequately raise strong 536 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,720 Speaker 1: manly sons, the mother of the controlled child associated with 537 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,320 Speaker 1: the authoritarian personality and the rise of Nazism and merged 538 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 1: in the advice literature only during World War One. Advice 539 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:51,240 Speaker 1: literature remained rather heterogeneous in its prescriptions for the training, correction, 540 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,560 Speaker 1: and care of children. As Caroline kay notes, prominent reformers 541 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 1: such as Ellen kay, Adel Schreiber and Friedrich Wilhelm Forster 542 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,600 Speaker 1: argued strenuously against corporate polished as detrimental to the development 543 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: of the self restrained, self determined individual. This diversity of views, 544 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: and especially the influence of the pedagogical reform movement, suggests 545 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: that normative ideas about the purpose of corporal punishment, the 546 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 1: interests it served, and the source of the legal right 547 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,280 Speaker 1: to use it were highly contested in Wilhelm mind society 548 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: and German legal cultures. So again, really common want to 549 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:23,960 Speaker 1: look for evidence of brutality in the upbringing of a 550 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,200 Speaker 1: brutal person, and especially to kind of blame the horrors 551 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,080 Speaker 1: of the Nazis on the way kids were raised. But 552 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: this guy, it's entirely possible that his parents never hit him. 553 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: Because that was a lot of German families, and a 554 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: lot of German families lined up on the no, this 555 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 1: is not okay. There was a vigorous debate and a 556 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:45,320 Speaker 1: substantial number of people were like, it's bad to hit kids. 557 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: I'm just like amazed that baby books have been around 558 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 1: for that long. Yeah, well yeah, I thought that was 559 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,800 Speaker 1: because like I'm I'm mid reading like three baby books 560 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: right now, and I'm like, how can what just anyone 561 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:00,920 Speaker 1: who has a baby you can write a baby book? 562 00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,280 Speaker 1: What are we doing here? One is just like if 563 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,520 Speaker 1: they cry, let him cry, And I'm like, this is 564 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,959 Speaker 1: get a book deal. Yeah. My suspicion is that, like 565 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,840 Speaker 1: baby books back then started like the ninety day points. 566 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:18,240 Speaker 1: So it's like, okay, so this one didn't die right through. 567 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,240 Speaker 1: It is old enough to count. Now it's time to 568 00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: start thinking about investing resources at it. So you're having 569 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:28,400 Speaker 1: a life child, you have a living child, rat elections, 570 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:35,600 Speaker 1: What to expect when you're expecting a baby to live? Yeah, 571 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,320 Speaker 1: the most popular child we ring book in Billhell mind 572 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: Germany so this fund didn't diet kicking and screaming hong. 573 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: Um so yeah, again, I just wanted to note that 574 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,720 Speaker 1: kind of because we don't know much about his childhood, 575 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: it's worth noting he does not report any abuse, and 576 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: he's born into a society that's probably the most proved 577 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,760 Speaker 1: aggressive place, at least in the Western world in terms 578 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,400 Speaker 1: of like the argument that you shouldn't hit kids. Um 579 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 1: so yeah. Anyway, if we are looking for hit hints 580 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: from his youth, that might have some sort of predictive 581 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:16,080 Speaker 1: bearing on his future behavior, right, that might like pressage 582 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,360 Speaker 1: some of the crimes he commits. We'd do better to 583 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,480 Speaker 1: cast our eyes up then, towards the town of Words 584 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:26,040 Speaker 1: words in jeez, we're Sesnia again. This is a Polish town. 585 00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,960 Speaker 1: It's part of Poland today, where Sesnia it's w r 586 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: z E s n i A. It's part of Poland today, 587 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 1: but at this time it's part of Germany. Right, because Germans, 588 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:40,200 Speaker 1: the Prussians in particular, occupy a big chunk of what 589 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: is today Poland in this period, they don't lose it. 590 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 1: To World War One. The occupiers, like most occupiers, did 591 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,400 Speaker 1: not like the idea of a people they had conquered 592 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,160 Speaker 1: speaking a language that wasn't their's right. So the Germans 593 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,800 Speaker 1: are like, well, we got all these kids, and uh, 594 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:56,280 Speaker 1: I don't think it's a great idea for them to 595 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 1: learn Polish because we don't really want Polish people in 596 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 1: Germany right like we were. We want to get rid 597 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 1: of that, you know. Um. So one day in nineteen 598 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:07,680 Speaker 1: o two, Johann Schultzen, who's a teacher and a Prussian 599 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,640 Speaker 1: teacher in word Zesnia, decides to take action. And I'm 600 00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: gonna quote from a write up in the First News, 601 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: a Polish news website. The peoples were crammed into a 602 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: classroom on the first floor, where they were giving a 603 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,160 Speaker 1: final chance to repeat a religious song in German by heart. 604 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:23,480 Speaker 1: Those who did so were released home. The rest were 605 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: held back to receive the flogging of their lives. Each 606 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,480 Speaker 1: child was individually frog marched to a chamber on the 607 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,800 Speaker 1: ground floor set aside for administering the punishment. The children 608 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,800 Speaker 1: were giving four to eight stinging strokes from a birch cane. 609 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,600 Speaker 1: The boys were flogged on their backsides, the girls on 610 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: their open palms. This was not just an ordinary case 611 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,479 Speaker 1: of disciplining children through corporal punishment. Which was common at 612 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,960 Speaker 1: the time. Each furious strike was intended to communicate the message, 613 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: this is Prussia, we are in charge, you polls will 614 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,720 Speaker 1: do as we say. One girl passed out from the pain. 615 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 1: Others were not able to hold their books in their 616 00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 1: swollen hands. So that's pretty bad. Yeah, that I guess. 617 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,880 Speaker 1: I guess it was a necessity to have, you know, 618 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: organizations being like stopped being your kids because there was 619 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: literally flogging rooms the basements of schools. You for sure 620 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:15,400 Speaker 1: needed people who were like being like, we have to 621 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,839 Speaker 1: stop flogging the children. Perhaps you know what wild idea, guys, 622 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: what if we try to be a no flogging society. 623 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:25,280 Speaker 1: I don't know that anyone needs to be flogged. Yes, 624 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,320 Speaker 1: no flog zone. We might we might be able to 625 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:32,400 Speaker 1: get by, okay without floggings. Yeah, I think we could arrive. Problem. 626 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: So this leads to the adults around them, the adults 627 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,719 Speaker 1: in town and stuff, like their parents are like, what 628 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:40,959 Speaker 1: in the fucking Christ are you doing to our kids? 629 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: This is nuts? And again, all of these people probably 630 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,000 Speaker 1: slap their kids, bank their kids, right, that's normal at 631 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,319 Speaker 1: the time. This is like a step beyond that, you know, 632 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,919 Speaker 1: So they engage in a strike that eventually and it's 633 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,239 Speaker 1: it's supported by the adults, but the strike spreads through 634 00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,480 Speaker 1: and isn't to some extent organized by children and eventually 635 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:04,600 Speaker 1: comes to more than fifty thousand Polish children who like kids. Yeah, 636 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: the kids go on strike and like so they will 637 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: all at the same day's refused to answer questions from 638 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: their teachers. Like I think they still go to school, 639 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,759 Speaker 1: but they just won't do anything. They're um and you know, 640 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:19,439 Speaker 1: there's protests. There's what you might call a riot where 641 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 1: a bunch of the adults start throwing stones at Prussian teachers. 642 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: Because again, the teachers are the occupiers here. These are 643 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: not like people are sympathetic inherently to teachers for good reasons. 644 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 1: These teachers are Prussians who are like running schools in 645 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,920 Speaker 1: a military fashion and occupied territory. Right, So again, throwing 646 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,840 Speaker 1: rocks at them probably fine. Like I'm just gonna say it, 647 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,880 Speaker 1: probably fine. I think in general, throwing rocks at all 648 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,920 Speaker 1: occupiers is what you should do. I'm usually on the 649 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 1: side of the people throwing rocks at the occupiers. Um. Now, 650 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: German police showed up and they put a bunch of 651 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,200 Speaker 1: striking children on trial, which is when the story blew 652 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,120 Speaker 1: up into an international issue. Uh, and this is this 653 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:01,560 Speaker 1: there's like massive articles in the New York Times and 654 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,759 Speaker 1: like like major international newspapers cover this because again, this 655 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,200 Speaker 1: is a lot of fucking kids and child strike is 656 00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 1: a pretty good story, right, yeah, that's awesome. Um yeah. 657 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,880 Speaker 1: Twenty people are eventually convicted and one parent is sentenced 658 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:20,480 Speaker 1: to two and a half years in prison. The Germans 659 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 1: even sentence a photographer to forty days in prison for 660 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,600 Speaker 1: distributing photos of people connected to the case. And again, 661 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:29,520 Speaker 1: this is a massive story. There's no way that Oscar 662 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: Darrel Wanger, who's you know, a kid at the time, 663 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: would have missed hearing about this, right, Uh, this is 664 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: like a big deal all throughout Imperial Germany. And in fact, 665 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: based on kind of his age, it's a good good 666 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 1: chance this is one of the first news stories he 667 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:45,319 Speaker 1: hears about as like a kid, like one of his 668 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,279 Speaker 1: earliest memories might be hearing about this. But I mean, 669 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:53,239 Speaker 1: but it feels like he is his family, yes, and 670 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:57,680 Speaker 1: just being against the strike. Well it's because I'm sure 671 00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,719 Speaker 1: and again he's an Imperial Germany. He's reading the New 672 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,760 Speaker 1: York Times coverage, He's reading like those those ungrateful poems 673 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:09,120 Speaker 1: are attacking teachers. They threw rocks at teachers trying to 674 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,320 Speaker 1: teach them to read German. Right, Like, that's more or 675 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,320 Speaker 1: less how it would have come down to him. Um, 676 00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:18,799 Speaker 1: so he makes his way through school, um, obtaining the 677 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 1: German equivalent of like high school degree. It's called a 678 00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 1: baccalaureate in the source I found. But I think this 679 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:26,239 Speaker 1: is just like a high school degree. None of it, 680 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:28,840 Speaker 1: none of like schooling in this period maps exactly to 681 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: our our modern ideas. Right. Um, they didn't have common 682 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:39,560 Speaker 1: core math, or they didn't have common Yeah, they had beatings. Yeah. 683 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:42,279 Speaker 1: Christian Ingrau, who is the author of a book about 684 00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:44,799 Speaker 1: Darrel Langer and his unit, makes a point to note 685 00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:48,680 Speaker 1: that his education quote did not include the humanities. Right, 686 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:50,520 Speaker 1: so this guy is not being and this is not 687 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:53,719 Speaker 1: actually not super common. For again, Germany is one of 688 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,319 Speaker 1: the centers of learning for the world, center of art, 689 00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:58,879 Speaker 1: center of culture. This is like the fact that he 690 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,799 Speaker 1: his spe ific education is kind of entirely focused on 691 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:06,160 Speaker 1: like industry and business and getting him ready to like 692 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: run a factory does not include humanities is kind of noteworthy. Um. 693 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,319 Speaker 1: After graduating, he endures further education with the goal of 694 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,319 Speaker 1: entering the private sector. Again, he's basically training up to 695 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:22,439 Speaker 1: be like a mid level functionary helping industrial Germany be industrial, right, 696 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:28,319 Speaker 1: trying to be rockets and ships. Yeah, So before he 697 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,840 Speaker 1: can finish any of this, before he can get his 698 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:34,200 Speaker 1: college degree, uh, he, like all German men, has to 699 00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,839 Speaker 1: do a year of service for the Kaiser in the military. Right. 700 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,640 Speaker 1: This is like there's a universal draft. It's kind of 701 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,399 Speaker 1: like what Ukraine was starting a version of this before 702 00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:44,319 Speaker 1: the war, right, where like everybody goes and they do 703 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:46,960 Speaker 1: a little bit of time, right. Um. And this is 704 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,440 Speaker 1: so that when the big war comes that everyone knows 705 00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:50,919 Speaker 1: it's going to come, we have a bunch of guys 706 00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: we can call up and we don't need to train them, right, 707 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:54,719 Speaker 1: maybe we do a refresher for a week, but they 708 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:56,120 Speaker 1: know how to hold a gun, they know what in march, 709 00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:57,640 Speaker 1: they know how to do all the things soldiers have 710 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,480 Speaker 1: to do. Um. So a lot of young men waited 711 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:03,560 Speaker 1: for the draft, right because it's it's the kind of 712 00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:05,799 Speaker 1: thing where like eventually your number comes up. So a 713 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:07,400 Speaker 1: lot of guys try to get in as much of 714 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,359 Speaker 1: their you know, early adulthood as they could before they 715 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,400 Speaker 1: had to do it. Oscar volunteers, he joins on his 716 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:17,240 Speaker 1: own um. He spends a year marching and training for again. 717 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,319 Speaker 1: Everyone assumes the next war is inevitable. Right. Germany had 718 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:23,640 Speaker 1: come to existence during a war that started in eighteen 719 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:26,120 Speaker 1: seventy with France that had lasted less than a year, 720 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 1: and it was pretty bloody. A lot of people die. 721 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,880 Speaker 1: It's not like a like a nice war. This is 722 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,920 Speaker 1: like where we get Germany. Everyone knows, like, well, we 723 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,160 Speaker 1: got unfinished beef with France. Right, they're going to start 724 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:38,319 Speaker 1: some ship at some point, right, you know, Germany and 725 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:43,719 Speaker 1: France or Prussian and France Austrian history. Right, you're not friendly, 726 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,160 Speaker 1: you know, you're you're looking at these two guys who 727 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,080 Speaker 1: every fifty years get into a giant fight, and they're like, yeah, 728 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: I bet they're gonna have another one at some point 729 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:55,600 Speaker 1: right now, because it's been about fifty years the Revolution. 730 00:39:55,719 --> 00:39:58,520 Speaker 1: They got Napoleon, they got another Napoleon, they got a 731 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,120 Speaker 1: king again. Yeah, now they don't have a king because 732 00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,280 Speaker 1: that last word didn't go great. So he was probably 733 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,880 Speaker 1: it's probably best to assume that like Oscar was eager 734 00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:11,799 Speaker 1: for that war to start, a lot of German men were, 735 00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:14,239 Speaker 1: and his assumption was that it was going to be 736 00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:18,160 Speaker 1: you get called up along with everybody else. Germany's you know, 737 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:20,920 Speaker 1: field army marches out first and then the reserves come 738 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,960 Speaker 1: in quit behind them. You campaigned for a couple of months, 739 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,800 Speaker 1: maybe a year, and there's like a couple of big 740 00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 1: set pace battles, right, that's what they're thing. Not like 741 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:30,920 Speaker 1: we're gonna be stuck in trenches for years, but like 742 00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:35,160 Speaker 1: three or four real decisive, giant fights that will be ugly, 743 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:36,800 Speaker 1: but then it will be done, and one way or 744 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,520 Speaker 1: the other will happen, right, and that's on either side 745 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:44,799 Speaker 1: of exhaustion. One guy will get stabbed. That was war 746 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,600 Speaker 1: back then, you know. Well it was a little earlier 747 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,960 Speaker 1: than that when the German Scott. But they it was 748 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,919 Speaker 1: not expected to be that bad, right, Yeah, they didn't 749 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,640 Speaker 1: know how bad it is. Not like one was like, hey, 750 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,960 Speaker 1: this is as fun as I remember. So these machine 751 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:04,800 Speaker 1: guns really, Raissa, boy, these muskets kill a lot of people. 752 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:08,600 Speaker 1: So Daryl Wanger is nearing the end of his year 753 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,479 Speaker 1: of service when the Archduke of Austria Hungary gets gets 754 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:15,360 Speaker 1: got in World War One starts. Christian Ingrow writes, quote 755 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,239 Speaker 1: Oscar Darrel Wanger's war began on August two in a 756 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,680 Speaker 1: machine gun company of the hundred and twenty third Regiment 757 00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:23,279 Speaker 1: of Grenadiers who were heading to France from Oom by 758 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 1: way of Belgium. In the confusion of general mobilization, troops 759 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:28,960 Speaker 1: that had already had their basic training were considered as 760 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,480 Speaker 1: part of the Reich's standing army. Thus they were the 761 00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:34,320 Speaker 1: spearhead of the Schliefen Plan, and Darrel Winger was thrust 762 00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:36,319 Speaker 1: into the battle at a time when losses were their 763 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:41,000 Speaker 1: most nightmarish. So in the whole history of human beings 764 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,520 Speaker 1: fighting wars, this is like upper five percent of the 765 00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,920 Speaker 1: worst things any soldiers in all of time experience, right 766 00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:53,600 Speaker 1: like fucking World War One early days. Ship units get 767 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,280 Speaker 1: like literally battalions, thousands of men getting wiped out almost 768 00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:00,480 Speaker 1: to the man um just absolute fucking night air ship. 769 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,400 Speaker 1: And I think some additional detail is necessary here to 770 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:06,840 Speaker 1: really drive home the kind of experience Oscar has, because 771 00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:08,719 Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out, like what makes him such 772 00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:10,520 Speaker 1: a piece of ship. Maybe he was from the beginning, 773 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,000 Speaker 1: some people just come out that way or whatever, but 774 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,800 Speaker 1: he is at this point, comfortable, middle class kid, good 775 00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:20,480 Speaker 1: family peaceful family, as far as he says, goes to 776 00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:24,040 Speaker 1: college on a pretty good life path, and then this happens. 777 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,799 Speaker 1: And in order to kind of contextualize his experience, I'm 778 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,080 Speaker 1: going to read a firsthand account from a British soldier, 779 00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:32,319 Speaker 1: a young officer named Harold McMillan, who later becomes Prime 780 00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,319 Speaker 1: Minister um and who there's a good chance he's feed 781 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,160 Speaker 1: away from Oscar at points right. There's no way to 782 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:40,200 Speaker 1: know um. But it's easier, a little easier to find 783 00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,759 Speaker 1: British firsthand accounts than German ones of this period, So 784 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,319 Speaker 1: that that's what we're reading. But I think this is 785 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,400 Speaker 1: more or less accurate to the kind of stuff that 786 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,960 Speaker 1: Oscar would have been seeing at this point. Perhaps the 787 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:54,160 Speaker 1: most extraordinary thing about the modern battlefield is the desolation 788 00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:56,560 Speaker 1: and emptiness of it all. Nothing is to be seen 789 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,720 Speaker 1: of war or soldiers. Only the split and shattered trees 790 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,239 Speaker 1: and the burst of an occasional shell reveal anything of 791 00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,719 Speaker 1: the truth. One can look for miles and see no 792 00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,359 Speaker 1: human being. But in those miles of country lurk like 793 00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,520 Speaker 1: moles or rats. It seems thousands, even hundreds of thousands 794 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,720 Speaker 1: of men planning against each other, perpetually, some new device 795 00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,640 Speaker 1: of death, never showing themselves, they launched at each other 796 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,600 Speaker 1: bullet bomb, aerial torpedo, and shell. And somewhere too are 797 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,200 Speaker 1: the little cylinders of gas, waiting only for the moment 798 00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:26,359 Speaker 1: to spit forth their nauseous and destroying fumes. And yet 799 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,000 Speaker 1: the landscape shows nothing of this, nothing but a few 800 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:31,520 Speaker 1: shattered trees and three or four thin lines of earth 801 00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,600 Speaker 1: and sandbags. These, in the ruins of towns and villages 802 00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,600 Speaker 1: are the only signs of war anywhere. The glamor of 803 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,000 Speaker 1: red coats, the martial tunes of fife and drum, the 804 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,120 Speaker 1: aids to camp scurrying hither and thither on, splendid chargers, 805 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,800 Speaker 1: lances glittering, and swords flashing. How different the old wars 806 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,239 Speaker 1: must have been. The thrill of battle comes now only 807 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,200 Speaker 1: once or twice in a year. We need not so 808 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,520 Speaker 1: much the gallantry of our fathers. We need and in 809 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:55,200 Speaker 1: our army at any rate, I think you will find 810 00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:59,799 Speaker 1: it that indomitable and patient determination like this is, This is, 811 00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:04,360 Speaker 1: this is most of this war is sitting waiting to 812 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,680 Speaker 1: get killed randomly, And then a couple of times a 813 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,279 Speaker 1: year you and all of your friends get mowed down 814 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:13,759 Speaker 1: by machine guns, right Like, That's what Durrol Wanger's war is. 815 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:18,000 Speaker 1: Most of it is getting trench foot and being like 816 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:22,400 Speaker 1: I'm gonna die from this and you know, fucking watching 817 00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:26,080 Speaker 1: watching like unimaginable horror because this is also at a 818 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:30,760 Speaker 1: time there's not cool movies about crazy sci fi horror ship. 819 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,759 Speaker 1: You know, this is like, this is unimaginable to most 820 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:35,880 Speaker 1: of these people. Yeah, this is like you know there 821 00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,200 Speaker 1: there's uh we could tell. Token was pretty adamant that 822 00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:41,640 Speaker 1: his books weren't about anything that had actually happened. But 823 00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:45,200 Speaker 1: like Token fights in a battle where thousands of men 824 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: drowned in the mud get like sucked down by their 825 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:51,680 Speaker 1: boots and are suffocated while their friends watch. And then 826 00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 1: he like writes the chapter in his book about a 827 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:55,920 Speaker 1: marsh filled with corpses that you can see right like 828 00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:58,399 Speaker 1: that that's the kind and durl Winger he's right there. 829 00:44:58,440 --> 00:44:59,880 Speaker 1: He's in the middle of this. His job is he 830 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,520 Speaker 1: is a machine gunner, so he is number one. He 831 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:07,880 Speaker 1: might have killed hundreds of people, like potentially thousands. Some 832 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,799 Speaker 1: of these guys literally individual dudes shoot thousands of people 833 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: to death over the course of the war. Um, there's 834 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 1: no way to know how many people he killed, and 835 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,720 Speaker 1: at some point he would have if he ever was counting, 836 00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:23,400 Speaker 1: would have stopped right um. And probably also basically everyone 837 00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:26,800 Speaker 1: he starts the war knowing dies right that, those early 838 00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:30,640 Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen soldiers not a high survival rate. No, No, 839 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,399 Speaker 1: there were imagining a war that you know from back 840 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,320 Speaker 1: in the day where there was like a drummer kid. Yeah, 841 00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:40,680 Speaker 1: and he is as a machine gunner. Number one, he's valuable. 842 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:44,279 Speaker 1: Number two, he is exposed and isolated. And number three 843 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,520 Speaker 1: he is constantly targeted by artillery and snipers. So this 844 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:52,840 Speaker 1: is like, this is really bad bad war, bad war experience. Yeah, 845 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:55,200 Speaker 1: a lot of trauma there, I could say, a little 846 00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,400 Speaker 1: PTSD problem a little a little bit and maybe a 847 00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:01,200 Speaker 1: little bit of PTSD just a little bit. Yeah, in 848 00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:04,239 Speaker 1: his first three months of combat, he's wounded badly enough 849 00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:06,120 Speaker 1: in his foot that he's sent away from most of 850 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,319 Speaker 1: a year to heal. Right, like whatever the injury is, 851 00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,400 Speaker 1: it's fucking gnarly. He comes back the next year and 852 00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,279 Speaker 1: in September of nineteen fifteen he gets wounded in the 853 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,960 Speaker 1: arm by a bayonet. So whatever happens, he is fighting 854 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: hand to hand with people and get stabbed nearly to death. Um. 855 00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:25,120 Speaker 1: And again that's the everyone who fought, and it agrees 856 00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:27,879 Speaker 1: the very worst combat in World War One was hand 857 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:32,480 Speaker 1: to hand trench combat. Um. Just a fucking nightmare. So 858 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,080 Speaker 1: he gets wounded badly enough. This is a very rare wound. 859 00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:38,600 Speaker 1: Christian in Ground notes that only about one percent of 860 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,760 Speaker 1: injured German soldiers have a similar injury. And that's because 861 00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:45,080 Speaker 1: nearly a hundred percent of men who gets seriously wounded 862 00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:49,240 Speaker 1: by a bayonet or a sword in close combat die 863 00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,480 Speaker 1: because everything is ship and mud around you. It's getting 864 00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,719 Speaker 1: jammed into your wound. You're probably going to bleed out 865 00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,719 Speaker 1: like you you have better shot at a like per 866 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,960 Speaker 1: injury basis with like a gunshot wound than gett fucking 867 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:04,040 Speaker 1: stabbed in hand to hand combat. And do they even 868 00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,759 Speaker 1: have They didn't have antibiotics back then, right, so they 869 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:09,600 Speaker 1: don't know. They're kind of starting to figure them out 870 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:11,200 Speaker 1: in this period. But no, these guys are not getting 871 00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:15,560 Speaker 1: antibiotics administered. UM. So he it is bad enough, he 872 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:17,960 Speaker 1: can never move his arm right again, and he gets 873 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:22,640 Speaker 1: raided by the military as fort disabled. Um. He severely 874 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:24,920 Speaker 1: heard enough that he probably could have ended his service 875 00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:27,120 Speaker 1: there if he had pressed the matter, but he wanted 876 00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,400 Speaker 1: to fight, and so in night he stays in the military. 877 00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,400 Speaker 1: In September of nineteen sixteen, he gets promoted to be 878 00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,239 Speaker 1: an n c O and he's moved to be a 879 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:36,560 Speaker 1: machine gun trainer. Right, So he could have stuck at 880 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,520 Speaker 1: this job training people and like not getting in direct combat, 881 00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,600 Speaker 1: but he repeatedly demanded to be sent back to the front, 882 00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,440 Speaker 1: and in April of nineteen seventeen, he's back in combat, 883 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:49,000 Speaker 1: despite the fact that his arm and rister permanently injured. Um, 884 00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,680 Speaker 1: he serves well. He's particularly good now that he's commanding 885 00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:56,160 Speaker 1: small groups of soldiers in combined arms using a mix 886 00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,240 Speaker 1: of mortars which you call pocket artillery, so short range artillery, 887 00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:02,680 Speaker 1: machine and maneuvering infantry and like these are a couple 888 00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,680 Speaker 1: of hundred people engagements, right, he's very good at that. 889 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,080 Speaker 1: He's very good at. And this is the Germans in 890 00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:10,840 Speaker 1: this period are inventing what we now know is just 891 00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:14,239 Speaker 1: like standard combat tactics for small units. Right, all of 892 00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,200 Speaker 1: that's being figured out by the Germans. Everyone else is 893 00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,400 Speaker 1: a few years behind. And so he is one of 894 00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,759 Speaker 1: the first guys to be commanding troops in gunfights in 895 00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:26,800 Speaker 1: what we would consider today to be a pretty modern way. Right, Um, 896 00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:28,680 Speaker 1: so that's interesting to me. You know what else is 897 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:32,040 Speaker 1: interesting to me, mad Leab, what the products and services 898 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,160 Speaker 1: that support this podcast, which are also on the cutting 899 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:39,960 Speaker 1: edge of small unit infantry combat tactics. Boy, if you 900 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,600 Speaker 1: want to learn how to kill a man, Nathan's hot Dogs. 901 00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,719 Speaker 1: That's right, Nathan's hot Dogs. Not only do they make 902 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,600 Speaker 1: good hot dogs, they'll teach you how to stab somebody. 903 00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:52,520 Speaker 1: And they're good at it. They've done it. They feel nothing. 904 00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:59,200 Speaker 1: Nathan's hot Dogs, I've killed before their slogan, right, that's 905 00:48:59,239 --> 00:49:09,160 Speaker 1: their slogan. That's right, have a hot dog. Ah, we're back. 906 00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:11,480 Speaker 1: I hope you all have your hot dogs and you're 907 00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:16,439 Speaker 1: ready to down your gullet. See how the sausage gets 908 00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:21,160 Speaker 1: made if the sausage is a war criminal. So Daryl Wanger, 909 00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,600 Speaker 1: as an enlisted man, gets promoted to lieutenant, which is 910 00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:27,600 Speaker 1: not common in most wars. Right. Enlisted in officers are 911 00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:31,120 Speaker 1: very different and they're different. Like normally, to be an officer, 912 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,400 Speaker 1: you like go to school, you like get a degree. 913 00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:36,560 Speaker 1: You are in the German military. You're generally someone who 914 00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,839 Speaker 1: comes from a high social status. You get a Vaughan 915 00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:43,680 Speaker 1: in your name. Maybe, Um, pretty rare for a guy 916 00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:45,799 Speaker 1: who's just like starts as a private to become a 917 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:48,239 Speaker 1: lieutenant through combat. And the reason this happens is that 918 00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,200 Speaker 1: like everybody's dead, and this is a thing that happened 919 00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:53,800 Speaker 1: a lot more back in the day. Like my grandpa 920 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:56,200 Speaker 1: was there for the like very you know, he was 921 00:49:56,200 --> 00:49:58,280 Speaker 1: in World War Two as well, but when the Korean 922 00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:00,400 Speaker 1: War started, he was in Korea and he was a 923 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:02,920 Speaker 1: sergeant and by the time the war ended, he was 924 00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,319 Speaker 1: a major. Um, which does not happen often. It's just like, 925 00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:10,440 Speaker 1: you know, because everybody's dying, right, Like, that's why this happens. Um, 926 00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,799 Speaker 1: he becomes he sent over to the Eastern Front where 927 00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:16,320 Speaker 1: he becomes a company commander, and this is probably saves 928 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,920 Speaker 1: his life because things go really well for Germany in 929 00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:21,799 Speaker 1: the East. Actually they win a war against Russia and 930 00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:24,640 Speaker 1: then a war against I think it's Romania. Um, like 931 00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:27,000 Speaker 1: they beat both of them while they're kind of at 932 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:29,399 Speaker 1: this stalemate in the Western Front. We don't know a 933 00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,600 Speaker 1: ton of his specific experiences on the aust Front, but 934 00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:35,640 Speaker 1: Christian Ingrow writes, quote, if there were ever a library 935 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:38,040 Speaker 1: for the ethnic fear of the enemy. During the Great War, 936 00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:41,160 Speaker 1: it was the Eastern Front. Over and over, soldiers letters 937 00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:44,200 Speaker 1: spoke of the dirtiness, the inferiority, the primitive nature of 938 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,880 Speaker 1: the population, and this observation reinforced a social Darwinism and 939 00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:51,560 Speaker 1: an essentialist view of the Eastern populations. Dura Wanger stayed 940 00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,560 Speaker 1: in Russia until November nineteen eighteen. Is a company leader 941 00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:58,759 Speaker 1: and lieutenant, so he's probably number one. Comes into this 942 00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,560 Speaker 1: pretty racist because most Germans are towards people in this 943 00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:06,000 Speaker 1: region and that probably gets reinforced by being the occupier here, right, 944 00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:10,120 Speaker 1: and when when the war ends and Germany does not win, 945 00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:12,760 Speaker 1: there's all these rebellions, right, all these left wing rebellions 946 00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:15,480 Speaker 1: across the Reich. And also like it's kind of a 947 00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:18,800 Speaker 1: disaster and no one had really expected, particularly in the East. 948 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,160 Speaker 1: So you've got all these skeleton units in the East 949 00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:24,520 Speaker 1: that like, by the way, your country's government's dissolved and 950 00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:27,720 Speaker 1: you've rusted the war, go turn yourself into whatever people 951 00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:31,520 Speaker 1: are nearby, right like, and a lot of German soldiers 952 00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,960 Speaker 1: are like, well know, yeah, I'm not going to do that. 953 00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:39,359 Speaker 1: And also I thought we were winning, you know, these 954 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,240 Speaker 1: guys are are all, you know, the great stabbing, the stabbing, 955 00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:45,239 Speaker 1: the back theory type of well, yeah, because from there 956 00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:51,520 Speaker 1: we fucking beat these guys to beat the French couldn't 957 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:57,200 Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, they got fucking Bolsheviks there because, um So, 958 00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,640 Speaker 1: Nicholas dura Winger is one of the guy who's like, no, 959 00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:04,600 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna turn myself into the fucking Romanian government, right, Like, 960 00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,719 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. So he like grabs a 961 00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:10,200 Speaker 1: bunch of and he makes it clear, like because again 962 00:52:10,239 --> 00:52:13,600 Speaker 1: everything is kind of chaotic, everything's falling apart. He's basically 963 00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:16,680 Speaker 1: just like yells to all of the Germans and earshot like, hey, 964 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:19,799 Speaker 1: I'm a comedy commander and I'm gonna get everybody out 965 00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:21,040 Speaker 1: of here. Like, if you want to get the funk 966 00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:22,120 Speaker 1: out of here and don't want to wind up in 967 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:25,480 Speaker 1: a prison camp, follow me. Um So, he gets like 968 00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,120 Speaker 1: a shipload of people together and he leads them successfully 969 00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:32,040 Speaker 1: home to Germany. One of the men he saved later wrote, quote, 970 00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:34,359 Speaker 1: it is rare for an officer to be honored as 971 00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:38,200 Speaker 1: our comrade. Durrel Winger was this after his successful return, 972 00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:40,560 Speaker 1: a return that the soldiers owed to him alone. He 973 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:42,959 Speaker 1: kept six hundred men from being interned as so many 974 00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:46,319 Speaker 1: were before and after US. So, among other things, Durrell 975 00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,520 Speaker 1: Winger will always be a guy that like his dudes 976 00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:51,239 Speaker 1: fucking love him, and part of it is because like 977 00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:53,680 Speaker 1: he will throw down for them. He's not. He's not 978 00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:55,719 Speaker 1: one of these guys who's like standing in the back 979 00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:58,560 Speaker 1: waiting to see how things happen. He gets injured repeatedly 980 00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,920 Speaker 1: because he's he. You have to say this about the 981 00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:04,400 Speaker 1: man not afraid of getting shot. Yeah, he's into it. 982 00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:06,279 Speaker 1: In fact, he's into it. In fact it might be 983 00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:11,719 Speaker 1: a kick. Yeah, it is unsettling, actually so. By the 984 00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:14,760 Speaker 1: terms of the Versailles Treaty, Germany is forbidden from fielding 985 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,160 Speaker 1: an army larger than a hundred thousand men. Given the 986 00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,000 Speaker 1: disastrous poverty that hits the country post defeat, these slots 987 00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:22,880 Speaker 1: are pretty coveted by the militarized veterans, right, It's a 988 00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:25,600 Speaker 1: it's a cushy gig. Adolf Hitler is one of the 989 00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:27,920 Speaker 1: few lucky events who gets a job post war, and 990 00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:31,080 Speaker 1: Durrel Wanger is another. But while Hitler is used by 991 00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,640 Speaker 1: the Reich's fair that's the new German military. They have 992 00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:38,040 Speaker 1: him infiltrating, right, wing groups, which is badly Yeah, that 993 00:53:38,120 --> 00:53:41,400 Speaker 1: don't work out so much. But really, maybe the worst 994 00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:44,720 Speaker 1: single mistake anyone ever made was being like, hey, Hitler, 995 00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:47,200 Speaker 1: see what those guys are up to. You gotta do 996 00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:49,200 Speaker 1: an episode on that guy, the guy who was like, 997 00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:54,000 Speaker 1: you know you have good spy and yeah, Hitler, guy, 998 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:57,719 Speaker 1: don't keep an eye on these National Socialists for us, 999 00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,600 Speaker 1: and whatever you do, don't join them or don't join them, 1000 00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:09,520 Speaker 1: don't join them at all. Don't boy, imagine that guy 1001 00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:12,640 Speaker 1: in like nineteen forty five is like every building around 1002 00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:17,839 Speaker 1: him is leveled by Allied bombers. Ship that didn't go out. Boy, 1003 00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:20,560 Speaker 1: I don't want to tell anybody what I did. Yeah, 1004 00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:23,480 Speaker 1: I have some regrets, Yeah, yeah, I mean a couple 1005 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:30,279 Speaker 1: of mistakes in the past, one big one. Um. So 1006 00:54:30,400 --> 00:54:33,319 Speaker 1: Daryl Wanger also stays on it's not hard to see 1007 00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:35,279 Speaker 1: why right, why he's got He's got like one of 1008 00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:38,080 Speaker 1: the best records anybody has from World War One in 1009 00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,759 Speaker 1: terms of like a combat soldier. Um, And so they 1010 00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:45,240 Speaker 1: put him to the task of violently suppressing left wing uprisings. UM. 1011 00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:48,000 Speaker 1: He fights a longside and often in units of the 1012 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:50,279 Speaker 1: Free Corps, and the Free Corps are kind of like 1013 00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:52,640 Speaker 1: they're a little like the Oath Keepers and three per centers, 1014 00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:56,120 Speaker 1: and that they are groups of veterans that have been 1015 00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:59,960 Speaker 1: demilitarized who are taking up arms to defend the country 1016 00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,040 Speaker 1: quote unquote against socialists. Right. One of the things that 1017 00:55:03,239 --> 00:55:04,880 Speaker 1: there's a couple of things that make them very different 1018 00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:06,840 Speaker 1: from those groups that we have in the United States, 1019 00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:09,400 Speaker 1: even though both try to overthrow the government. One is 1020 00:55:09,440 --> 00:55:11,319 Speaker 1: that the Free Corps are all made up of guys 1021 00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:13,960 Speaker 1: who have actually done nightmare things, right, Like, they're not 1022 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:15,880 Speaker 1: They're not like dudes who like, did four years in 1023 00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:18,520 Speaker 1: Korea and then like lie about their deployment history. For 1024 00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:21,839 Speaker 1: they're like guys who guys who's like friends, teeth got 1025 00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:24,400 Speaker 1: embedded in their skin after their heads were blown apart. 1026 00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:28,400 Speaker 1: These are guys who would you know by tactical sunglasses 1027 00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:31,839 Speaker 1: on TV. These men are dead inside and killing makes 1028 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:34,839 Speaker 1: them feel nothing. The other thing is that these guys 1029 00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:37,560 Speaker 1: are being integrated by the military, right because the military 1030 00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:39,080 Speaker 1: is like, a hundred thousand men is not enough to 1031 00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:41,360 Speaker 1: do anything. So we have these hundreds of thousands of 1032 00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:43,520 Speaker 1: veterans who like, if we throw them a little bit 1033 00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:45,040 Speaker 1: of cash, if we leave the other way, when they 1034 00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:47,200 Speaker 1: acquire guns, we can bring them in and we can 1035 00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,000 Speaker 1: use them when we need them to like maintain order 1036 00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,080 Speaker 1: and suppress things. Right. So, and this is very illegal 1037 00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:55,880 Speaker 1: under like the terms of the treaty they've signed, but 1038 00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,320 Speaker 1: also pretty again nothing gets done for a number of reasons, 1039 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:02,040 Speaker 1: including the fact that, like a lot of people are like, well, 1040 00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:05,959 Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? Fight him again? So, yeah, 1041 00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:08,680 Speaker 1: he's he's with these guys, he's with these Free Corps units. 1042 00:56:08,719 --> 00:56:11,319 Speaker 1: But he's kind of he's in the Reich's fair and 1043 00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:15,200 Speaker 1: basically his job because he's commanding a unit they whenever 1044 00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:19,040 Speaker 1: there because there's all these communist insurrectionary strikes, right, and 1045 00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,279 Speaker 1: he's in his particularly areas, he's in his Wartenberg, and 1046 00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:23,319 Speaker 1: whenever the communists will like take over part of a 1047 00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,680 Speaker 1: town or like do it a big strike, he and 1048 00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:29,280 Speaker 1: his guys will like drive through town on an armored 1049 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:34,799 Speaker 1: train and fire machine guns at them. Um. So that's 1050 00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:40,719 Speaker 1: that's his gig now, to be well, nice job, you 1051 00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:44,399 Speaker 1: can get it, um now. To be fair. Number one, 1052 00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,120 Speaker 1: a lot of these communists also veterans, now, decent number 1053 00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:49,000 Speaker 1: of them are guys who didn't fight because they were 1054 00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:52,440 Speaker 1: like making bullets and stuff. Right, because factory workers were 1055 00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:56,080 Speaker 1: are very easy to turn into communists. It turns out, um, 1056 00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:57,799 Speaker 1: but a lot of them are veterans and they're not 1057 00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:02,879 Speaker 1: always unarmed. In March of night, communists with guns take 1058 00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:05,720 Speaker 1: over the city of Sangerhausen as part of a broader 1059 00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:09,759 Speaker 1: German uprising. It's this attempt at like a mass uh 1060 00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:14,640 Speaker 1: like general strike Comma revolution um. And Max Holes, who 1061 00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:17,600 Speaker 1: who commands He's the guy in charge of the of 1062 00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:21,360 Speaker 1: the of the communists, has his Max Holes. H O 1063 00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:26,919 Speaker 1: E l z Um Max Holes. I'm gonna put Max 1064 00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:32,520 Speaker 1: Holes in your exactly how many guys, fucking dude, Max 1065 00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:35,040 Speaker 1: Holes must have done this. The guy got shot at thousands. 1066 00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:39,960 Speaker 1: Why do you insist on giving people maximum holes? So 1067 00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:43,720 Speaker 1: my name, Max Holes has his men. It pretty sounds 1068 00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:45,680 Speaker 1: pretty cool. They're robbing all of the rich people in 1069 00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:49,080 Speaker 1: town to fund this wider uprising. Um. They destroy the 1070 00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:51,320 Speaker 1: telegraph service, which I think is probably to like limit 1071 00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:54,040 Speaker 1: the government's ability to communicate. And then they kidnap all 1072 00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:56,240 Speaker 1: of the wealthiest people in town with an eye towards 1073 00:57:56,320 --> 00:57:59,960 Speaker 1: ransoming them to fund the revolution. But then Darawanger drive 1074 00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:02,600 Speaker 1: through town again. He's got an armored train, his men 1075 00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:06,280 Speaker 1: are generally better trained and definitely better equipped, and they 1076 00:58:06,560 --> 00:58:09,880 Speaker 1: beat the copy They forced the communists out of town. 1077 00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:12,600 Speaker 1: They actually kind of get the worst of the actual combat. 1078 00:58:13,080 --> 00:58:16,080 Speaker 1: Thirteen people die, seven of whom are Durroll Wanger's men, 1079 00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:20,200 Speaker 1: three of whom are insurgents, and three of whom are civilians. Um. 1080 00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:23,520 Speaker 1: Durro Winger uses explosives to level significant parts of the city, 1081 00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:24,920 Speaker 1: which is a big part of why Holes and his 1082 00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:27,080 Speaker 1: guy's bounce because they're like, so this guy is just 1083 00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,840 Speaker 1: like blowing up all of town in order. We're not 1084 00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:34,560 Speaker 1: really ready for this. Um yeah, this is a strategy 1085 00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:39,040 Speaker 1: I had not considered, and I consider many holes really 1086 00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:42,640 Speaker 1: big hole. I'm not ready for this. Yeah. Um. So 1087 00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:47,000 Speaker 1: Durroll Langer's response the way he obviously he wins, which 1088 00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:49,160 Speaker 1: the government's happy with, but also he has blown up 1089 00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:52,280 Speaker 1: a significant portion of the town, which does not endear 1090 00:58:52,400 --> 00:58:55,200 Speaker 1: him to the townspeople, who were like, well, these guys 1091 00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:57,840 Speaker 1: were robbing rich folks, but they didn't blow up downtown. 1092 00:58:58,000 --> 00:58:59,400 Speaker 1: So I don't know, I don't know if I'm like 1093 00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:03,000 Speaker 1: really on ward with either of you. Um yeah. One 1094 00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:06,480 Speaker 1: seems worse significantly. The Weimar government later decides that some 1095 00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:09,520 Speaker 1: of his actions have been extreme, right, he keeps getting 1096 00:59:09,520 --> 00:59:12,160 Speaker 1: like slaps on the wrist and even gets jailed a 1097 00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:14,600 Speaker 1: couple of times. But he's also he's really good at 1098 00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:17,920 Speaker 1: putting down insurrections, right, Like he's great at it. So 1099 00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:22,360 Speaker 1: they're not going to like actually punish him. Damn that sucks. 1100 00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:26,320 Speaker 1: It's just like ever since those those children's you know, 1101 00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:28,720 Speaker 1: how to strike, He's like, I will make it my 1102 00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:32,840 Speaker 1: life's work to destroy any kind of solidarity between He's 1103 00:59:32,880 --> 00:59:35,440 Speaker 1: really just always been defending those teachers who got hit 1104 00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:39,800 Speaker 1: with rocks. Yeah, exactly, you forgot to give us homework. 1105 00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:43,000 Speaker 1: That's like his whole thing. He's that kid military is 1106 00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:46,280 Speaker 1: off and on in the military, right, Like he's i 1107 00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:48,400 Speaker 1: think always drawing a salary, but he's like trying to 1108 00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:50,440 Speaker 1: do other stuff. And he just like will regularly to 1109 00:59:50,480 --> 00:59:52,440 Speaker 1: be like, hey, we need you to go shoot people 1110 00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:54,160 Speaker 1: from a train again, and off he'll go to go 1111 00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:56,480 Speaker 1: shoot people from a train. And it kind of in 1112 00:59:56,520 --> 00:59:59,800 Speaker 1: between suppressing these uprisings because there's a bunch in this 1113 01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:03,720 Speaker 1: eighteen eighteen one, like a lot of fucking ships going 1114 01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:07,200 Speaker 1: down in Germany, pretty wild history. He gets arrested twice 1115 01:00:07,320 --> 01:00:11,040 Speaker 1: and sentenced to prison for two short sentences, both times 1116 01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:14,920 Speaker 1: for illegally concealing weapons. Now, we don't have great detail 1117 01:00:14,960 --> 01:00:17,000 Speaker 1: on this, but it probably because of the way it's written. 1118 01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:20,640 Speaker 1: It's probably not that he was carrying a gun concealed illegally, 1119 01:00:20,920 --> 01:00:24,160 Speaker 1: but that he was helping paramilitary Fright Corps units steal 1120 01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:27,560 Speaker 1: and concealed machine guns and other like like literally like 1121 01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:30,880 Speaker 1: hiding like burying weapons. Right. Yeah, I was gonna say 1122 01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,720 Speaker 1: it is job is is? I guess the train is 1123 01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:37,720 Speaker 1: not inconspicuous. Yeah, they were like, you're allowed to have 1124 01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:42,240 Speaker 1: the gun. Train is fine, it's these other guns and awesome, Yeah, 1125 01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:44,400 Speaker 1: you can't be hiding gun. And the reality is like 1126 01:00:44,480 --> 01:00:46,840 Speaker 1: with our government, right, you've got these right wing ship 1127 01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:49,680 Speaker 1: head militiamen, and there are cops, and there are soldiers 1128 01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:52,280 Speaker 1: who are on their side, and there are politicians who 1129 01:00:52,320 --> 01:00:54,080 Speaker 1: like them. There's also a lot of people in the 1130 01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:56,480 Speaker 1: government and the judicial system who are like, no, you 1131 01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:58,640 Speaker 1: can't do that. Here's a slap on the wrist. You know, 1132 01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:02,920 Speaker 1: did our job a liberal society? I'm sure that's the 1133 01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:05,680 Speaker 1: last we'll hear of Oscar Darrel Wager after he spends 1134 01:01:05,720 --> 01:01:09,720 Speaker 1: two months in prison for stealing machine guns from the military, 1135 01:01:09,840 --> 01:01:16,600 Speaker 1: dusting off his hands, solving the problem forever. So the 1136 01:01:16,720 --> 01:01:19,320 Speaker 1: end of his military career for a little while is 1137 01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:24,080 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenty three Munich Beer Hall Putsch Hitler attempts 1138 01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:27,080 Speaker 1: to take over the government. Doesn't go very well, and 1139 01:01:27,400 --> 01:01:30,320 Speaker 1: Oscar is not part of the Nazi Party at this point, 1140 01:01:30,320 --> 01:01:32,840 Speaker 1: but he's in a bunch of different right wing organizations 1141 01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:35,440 Speaker 1: that are close to them. And when Hitler does this, 1142 01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:39,040 Speaker 1: he attempts to send in the Stuttgart Police's armored vehicles 1143 01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:42,480 Speaker 1: to support Hitler's attempt to take power. This does not 1144 01:01:42,640 --> 01:01:44,720 Speaker 1: He he doesn't have the power to do this, right, Like, 1145 01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:47,160 Speaker 1: he's not in charge of them, So this doesn't work out, 1146 01:01:47,200 --> 01:01:49,360 Speaker 1: and he kind of like he gets ship canned for this, 1147 01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:52,480 Speaker 1: which is fair, right, I would I would fire somebody 1148 01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:56,920 Speaker 1: for this, Yeah, um, or at least have hr kind 1149 01:01:56,920 --> 01:02:00,320 Speaker 1: of like do I don't know, suspend him for should 1150 01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:02,360 Speaker 1: do something right, you should do there should be some 1151 01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:06,680 Speaker 1: sort of process when you attend gun train, for one, Yeah, 1152 01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:08,280 Speaker 1: you don't get to get on that gun train for 1153 01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:11,800 Speaker 1: a whole week scared. So by the time he's kind 1154 01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:14,440 Speaker 1: of out of the military, he is unemployed. It is 1155 01:02:14,520 --> 01:02:17,280 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three. He's twenty nine years old. He has 1156 01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:20,840 Speaker 1: several chronic injuries that trouble him, and he's looking for 1157 01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:25,280 Speaker 1: a gig. Now. While this period, everything we've talked about 1158 01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:27,600 Speaker 1: with him suppressing all these left wing uprisings is going on, 1159 01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:31,040 Speaker 1: Oscar is also going to college. Right, he's basically doing 1160 01:02:31,080 --> 01:02:33,960 Speaker 1: his g I bill equivalent shiit uh. He had enrolled 1161 01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:37,600 Speaker 1: at a technical university soon after the war, and student 1162 01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:41,320 Speaker 1: culture in Germany during this period super right wing right 1163 01:02:41,440 --> 01:02:44,280 Speaker 1: universities are filled with veterans who had like we're returning 1164 01:02:44,320 --> 01:02:47,440 Speaker 1: from the front. A lot of colleges were basically just 1165 01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:50,880 Speaker 1: recruitment grounds for free corps um. At the same time, 1166 01:02:50,960 --> 01:02:54,240 Speaker 1: student organizations had been taken by a trend towards the 1167 01:02:54,320 --> 01:02:57,880 Speaker 1: Vulcansh movement. So a lot of like student organizations at 1168 01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:01,920 Speaker 1: different colleges are explicitly Vulkish. And this is the it's 1169 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:05,800 Speaker 1: a German ethno nationalist movement that eventually kind of leads 1170 01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:08,400 Speaker 1: to the Nazi movement. But it's this like, you know, 1171 01:03:08,480 --> 01:03:12,200 Speaker 1: there's a German people, it is a specific subset of us, 1172 01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:14,840 Speaker 1: and we're better than everyone, right, Like we could get 1173 01:03:14,880 --> 01:03:17,200 Speaker 1: into it in more detail, but it's not really necessary. 1174 01:03:17,400 --> 01:03:20,160 Speaker 1: And I'm gonna quote from the S. S. Durrowanger Brigade 1175 01:03:20,200 --> 01:03:25,000 Speaker 1: by Christian Ingrau quote. He distinguished himself very early by 1176 01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:28,120 Speaker 1: his volkish convictions and expressed them with unusual violence. The 1177 01:03:28,240 --> 01:03:32,800 Speaker 1: university threatened him with disciplinary proceedings for avowed anti Semitic agitation. 1178 01:03:33,280 --> 01:03:37,440 Speaker 1: This fact merely reflects Durrol Wanger's political involvement. Since nineteen nineteen, 1179 01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:39,840 Speaker 1: he had been a member of the deutsch volk Shutsund 1180 01:03:39,920 --> 01:03:43,280 Speaker 1: trust Bund, one of the most virulent organizations in terms 1181 01:03:43,320 --> 01:03:47,000 Speaker 1: of both anti Semitic hatred and of revolutionary nationalist feeling. 1182 01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:52,080 Speaker 1: It counted in its trust Bund Baby, And again, we 1183 01:03:52,120 --> 01:03:54,080 Speaker 1: don't know if he was like super anti Semitic his 1184 01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:55,919 Speaker 1: whole life, if there was a thing, because some guys 1185 01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:58,840 Speaker 1: pick it up during the war, right like because easy way, 1186 01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,320 Speaker 1: you know, we we don't really have that kind of context. 1187 01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:03,160 Speaker 1: Could have been something he got at home, could have 1188 01:04:03,160 --> 01:04:07,160 Speaker 1: come later. But he's real hardcore racist by this point. Um, 1189 01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:10,920 Speaker 1: I'm gonna continue that quote about the trust Bunda. It 1190 01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:14,120 Speaker 1: counted in its ranks. Future leaders of Nazi repression such 1191 01:04:14,120 --> 01:04:18,040 Speaker 1: as Ryan hard Hydrick and Ryan hard Horn there's our buddy, 1192 01:04:19,120 --> 01:04:27,520 Speaker 1: shout out a friend of the pod, Ryan hard Hydrick. Yeah. 1193 01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:30,960 Speaker 1: Oh man, I love getting all the all the boys 1194 01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:34,800 Speaker 1: back to Yeah, the gang's really coming together here. Yeah. 1195 01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:39,640 Speaker 1: This is like the Avengers of but they're all yeah, yea, yeah, 1196 01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:43,760 Speaker 1: it's it's the Avengers if the Hulk was looked like 1197 01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:46,760 Speaker 1: the Hulk, but like more like well, actually, Edward Norton 1198 01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:50,240 Speaker 1: played the Hulk too, so yeah, actually, yeah, there's a 1199 01:04:50,280 --> 01:04:52,160 Speaker 1: there's a way to work this. You figure it out 1200 01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:55,720 Speaker 1: for yourselves, you know, the incredible Yeah, there we go. 1201 01:04:56,600 --> 01:05:00,720 Speaker 1: Um yeah. Dr Winger belonged to an beula of parties 1202 01:05:00,760 --> 01:05:03,440 Speaker 1: and associations linked by the feeling that Germany was an 1203 01:05:03,440 --> 01:05:07,480 Speaker 1: imminent danger of disappearing, diminished as it was by territorial losses, 1204 01:05:07,520 --> 01:05:10,000 Speaker 1: the rulings of the Treaty of Versailles, and internal and 1205 01:05:10,040 --> 01:05:13,400 Speaker 1: external enemies who, despite the peace treaty, had not disarmed. 1206 01:05:14,240 --> 01:05:18,040 Speaker 1: So Darrel Winger's scholastic career was not interrupted either by 1207 01:05:18,080 --> 01:05:21,360 Speaker 1: his arrests or by his disciplinary proceedings for racism. Because 1208 01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:23,360 Speaker 1: he gets in trouble with the school for being racist. 1209 01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:26,840 Speaker 1: He eventually moves to Frankfurt, where he finishes his education 1210 01:05:26,920 --> 01:05:29,760 Speaker 1: and winds up with a pH d in political science. 1211 01:05:29,800 --> 01:05:33,280 Speaker 1: He is a doctor. He has doctor Oscar Darrell Wanger 1212 01:05:34,000 --> 01:05:38,240 Speaker 1: is doctor of a startling number of the worst Nazis 1213 01:05:38,280 --> 01:05:40,840 Speaker 1: were doctors and lawyers of some sort of. It's a 1214 01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:43,680 Speaker 1: great scene in the movie Conspiracy where like one of 1215 01:05:43,760 --> 01:05:47,520 Speaker 1: I think it's Umdlo Globoschnik, but one of like the 1216 01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:51,160 Speaker 1: Nazis planning the fucking Holocaust because they're having an argument 1217 01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:53,360 Speaker 1: over like legal matters. Is like, raise your hand if 1218 01:05:53,360 --> 01:05:54,880 Speaker 1: you're a lawyer, and all of the guys at the 1219 01:05:54,920 --> 01:06:00,000 Speaker 1: table race there because yeah, they're all fucking yeah, um, 1220 01:06:00,040 --> 01:06:03,760 Speaker 1: some of them are literally doctors of law actually, so yeah, 1221 01:06:03,760 --> 01:06:06,200 Speaker 1: he gets his PhD and he becomes an accountant and 1222 01:06:06,240 --> 01:06:08,440 Speaker 1: for the next several years he has a successful, if 1223 01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:13,120 Speaker 1: boring career in business. Now his his overt political involvement 1224 01:06:13,240 --> 01:06:15,880 Speaker 1: in right wing stuff fades after the putch because for 1225 01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:18,800 Speaker 1: a while, like the Hitler movements illegal, you know, there's 1226 01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:21,240 Speaker 1: there is a bit of a crackdown, um, And if 1227 01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:23,560 Speaker 1: Hitler's movement had died out, he might have just wound 1228 01:06:23,680 --> 01:06:28,040 Speaker 1: up as like a low key racist businessman, like that's possible, 1229 01:06:28,760 --> 01:06:31,880 Speaker 1: But the Nazis don't go away. The band against their 1230 01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:35,200 Speaker 1: activism fades and eventually ends, and in the late nineteen twenties, 1231 01:06:35,400 --> 01:06:39,040 Speaker 1: Dura Wanger gets back into it being involved with the Essay. Right, 1232 01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:41,680 Speaker 1: he can't do much in the streets because from nine 1233 01:06:42,240 --> 01:06:45,040 Speaker 1: to nineteen thirty one he's made the executive director of 1234 01:06:45,040 --> 01:06:48,240 Speaker 1: a textile factory owned by a Jewish family. But he 1235 01:06:48,320 --> 01:06:51,200 Speaker 1: embezzls a shipload of money from this Jewish factory and 1236 01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:53,440 Speaker 1: he gives it to the Essay so they can buy weapons. 1237 01:06:54,040 --> 01:07:02,640 Speaker 1: Um yeah, yeah great, Um so he's he's funneling shipped 1238 01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:04,840 Speaker 1: to the Essay until nineteen thirty two when he can 1239 01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:09,240 Speaker 1: like rejoin publicly because it's safe. Um so, I do 1240 01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:13,439 Speaker 1: love The part of me is just like it would 1241 01:07:13,480 --> 01:07:16,960 Speaker 1: be dope to be that Jewish family who owns the 1242 01:07:17,040 --> 01:07:21,439 Speaker 1: fucking textile meal and watching this little anti Semitic piece 1243 01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:25,760 Speaker 1: of ship not be able to say anything, just the 1244 01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:28,320 Speaker 1: it would have been. It would have been cool if 1245 01:07:28,360 --> 01:07:31,360 Speaker 1: like that's how things had ended. Yeah yeah, no, right, 1246 01:07:31,440 --> 01:07:34,240 Speaker 1: yeah yeah yeah, the rest of the bad. But you know, 1247 01:07:34,320 --> 01:07:36,360 Speaker 1: for a second, there it's time. There's some fun moments. 1248 01:07:36,400 --> 01:07:40,320 Speaker 1: Probably so Darrow Winger's loyalty and the enthusiastic support of 1249 01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:43,040 Speaker 1: guys he'd led into battle who had become Nazis meant 1250 01:07:43,040 --> 01:07:45,360 Speaker 1: that once he's publicly in the essay again, he gets 1251 01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:48,760 Speaker 1: promoted very quickly. By nineteen thirty three, he's been given 1252 01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:52,440 Speaker 1: a cushy job as director of the hell Brawn Employment Agency. 1253 01:07:52,880 --> 01:07:55,480 Speaker 1: The economy was once again in the shipter Right. Things 1254 01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:57,800 Speaker 1: aren't going great for the German economy, and the fact 1255 01:07:57,800 --> 01:07:59,920 Speaker 1: that they can hand out jobs is critical to the 1256 01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:02,840 Speaker 1: new Nazi regime. It's part of how they're like consolidating power. 1257 01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:05,800 Speaker 1: So the fact that Oscar is running an employment agency 1258 01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:08,520 Speaker 1: for the Nazis means that he's in a really trusted 1259 01:08:08,560 --> 01:08:12,560 Speaker 1: and important position. Right. He's doling out money, essentially to 1260 01:08:12,680 --> 01:08:15,280 Speaker 1: people who are supporting the regime, and he's able to 1261 01:08:15,400 --> 01:08:18,040 Speaker 1: because he can hand out cushy gigs. Probably is making 1262 01:08:18,080 --> 01:08:21,519 Speaker 1: a good amount of money via bribes, you have to assume. Um. 1263 01:08:21,560 --> 01:08:23,720 Speaker 1: So his position is solid enough that he's able to 1264 01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:27,080 Speaker 1: fight off embezzlement allegations from his former employer, which are 1265 01:08:27,120 --> 01:08:32,200 Speaker 1: definitely true. Um. He gets arrested. So he's arrested twice 1266 01:08:32,280 --> 01:08:34,920 Speaker 1: because he gets drunk and does drugs and crashes his 1267 01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:38,400 Speaker 1: car into people. Um. But all that all that goes away. Yeah, 1268 01:08:38,400 --> 01:08:41,480 Speaker 1: he's a he has a hardcore drug addict, probably cocaine. 1269 01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:43,960 Speaker 1: People usually aren't specific when they talk about it, but 1270 01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:47,400 Speaker 1: that would be my guess, although maybe a few things. Um, 1271 01:08:47,520 --> 01:08:52,439 Speaker 1: but I like it because it's white powder ZVI tist 1272 01:08:52,479 --> 01:08:57,400 Speaker 1: of drugs. So he's doing great. He's he's handing out jobs, 1273 01:08:57,439 --> 01:09:00,960 Speaker 1: he's crashing his car while wasted. Um. If life is 1274 01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:04,760 Speaker 1: going well for Dr Oscar Darrel Wanger. But then on 1275 01:09:04,840 --> 01:09:09,120 Speaker 1: July twenty two, nineteen thirty four, tragedy strikes Matt because 1276 01:09:09,120 --> 01:09:11,679 Speaker 1: he gets caught having sex with a fourteen year old girl. 1277 01:09:12,520 --> 01:09:17,160 Speaker 1: Um yeah, oh yeah, um, oh yes, I thought you 1278 01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:23,960 Speaker 1: meant tragedy strikes for him. It is a tragedy um too. 1279 01:09:24,080 --> 01:09:26,120 Speaker 1: But like yeah, no, I was not referring to him. 1280 01:09:26,160 --> 01:09:28,760 Speaker 1: So he had met her while she she was she's 1281 01:09:28,760 --> 01:09:30,960 Speaker 1: a volunteer for the Red Cross that he meets in 1282 01:09:31,000 --> 01:09:35,040 Speaker 1: his official duties. Um. He will argue when he goes 1283 01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:37,760 Speaker 1: to court that she just lied about her age. She 1284 01:09:37,880 --> 01:09:41,599 Speaker 1: claims she was violently raped and the medical examination suggests 1285 01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:45,960 Speaker 1: violent rape. So I can tell you whose account I trust, 1286 01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:51,160 Speaker 1: and it's not the Nazi. Um. Now this is a 1287 01:09:51,160 --> 01:09:55,280 Speaker 1: problem for his Nazi employers. Right, they don't. They're not 1288 01:09:55,400 --> 01:09:58,480 Speaker 1: like cool with this. Right. Again, these guys are Nazis, 1289 01:09:58,520 --> 01:10:00,559 Speaker 1: but most of them have been normal p most of 1290 01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:03,080 Speaker 1: their lives. And when you hear that this guy who 1291 01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:07,439 Speaker 1: you're like involved with, rapes a child, they're like, well, no, 1292 01:10:07,640 --> 01:10:09,880 Speaker 1: we don't want you to be in our organization for 1293 01:10:09,920 --> 01:10:12,640 Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, people might think it might not like 1294 01:10:12,760 --> 01:10:16,120 Speaker 1: the Nazis. Yeah, you know, we want people to like 1295 01:10:16,320 --> 01:10:19,559 Speaker 1: us first. So he gets stripped of his doctoral title, 1296 01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:23,120 Speaker 1: he loses his PhD, he gets removed from the essay, 1297 01:10:23,160 --> 01:10:26,080 Speaker 1: and he's sent to prison for two years. Um. He 1298 01:10:26,160 --> 01:10:29,040 Speaker 1: also gets hizzled punished for embezzling the money that he'd 1299 01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:32,240 Speaker 1: sent to the essay. So they just kind of throw 1300 01:10:32,280 --> 01:10:34,240 Speaker 1: the book at him. I think this, Yeah, they just 1301 01:10:34,320 --> 01:10:38,160 Speaker 1: tacked like, yeah, get him. It might be that this 1302 01:10:38,200 --> 01:10:40,760 Speaker 1: girl was also the daughter of a Nazi who like 1303 01:10:40,840 --> 01:10:43,160 Speaker 1: had some poll right, and so that's that's part of 1304 01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:44,920 Speaker 1: Like Again, if he had done this to someone who 1305 01:10:45,000 --> 01:10:47,599 Speaker 1: was you know, marginalized by the Nazi state, probably would 1306 01:10:47,600 --> 01:10:49,800 Speaker 1: have been a punishment. But he does pick. He picks 1307 01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:52,960 Speaker 1: like an Aryan girl. Um, so that's a big part 1308 01:10:53,000 --> 01:10:54,720 Speaker 1: of why he gets in trouble. But he does get 1309 01:10:54,720 --> 01:10:57,040 Speaker 1: in trouble. I would say two years is not enough time, 1310 01:10:57,080 --> 01:10:59,760 Speaker 1: but it's not nothing. Um. So he gets out of 1311 01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:02,760 Speaker 1: is An in nineteen thirties six and he sets to 1312 01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:05,960 Speaker 1: work immediately, begging his former bosses for forgiveness. He's like, 1313 01:11:06,000 --> 01:11:08,400 Speaker 1: I want my please reinstate my doctorate. I've done all 1314 01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:11,160 Speaker 1: this stuff for the movement. Um. He sends so many 1315 01:11:11,240 --> 01:11:14,280 Speaker 1: letters directly to Hitler begging for clemency that he gets 1316 01:11:14,360 --> 01:11:18,080 Speaker 1: arrested again and sent to a concentration camp. Like they're like, 1317 01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:20,760 Speaker 1: you gotta stop bugging Hitler. You know it'll cool you 1318 01:11:20,800 --> 01:11:26,360 Speaker 1: all some time. And doctor goddamn letters. Yeah, he gets 1319 01:11:26,360 --> 01:11:28,600 Speaker 1: sent to I think it's Doc au for like it 1320 01:11:28,720 --> 01:11:31,240 Speaker 1: might have been Saxon Housen for sending Hitler too many 1321 01:11:31,240 --> 01:11:36,120 Speaker 1: fucking letters, which is I have to say, there aren't 1322 01:11:36,160 --> 01:11:38,080 Speaker 1: a lot of silly reasons to get sent to a 1323 01:11:38,080 --> 01:11:41,920 Speaker 1: concentration camp, but that is one. That is the silly reason. 1324 01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:49,000 Speaker 1: Silliest there's dying of tid Like, that's ridiculous, that's why 1325 01:11:49,000 --> 01:11:53,040 Speaker 1: you're here. What the funk man? What are you waiting for? Um? 1326 01:11:53,240 --> 01:11:55,800 Speaker 1: I really want my doctor at back. You see, I 1327 01:11:55,840 --> 01:11:58,800 Speaker 1: have this certificate that was it meant a lot too, 1328 01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,040 Speaker 1: So I couldn't hear you might he fell out what 1329 01:12:01,040 --> 01:12:06,719 Speaker 1: what so? Um, Yeah, he spent some time in a camp. 1330 01:12:06,760 --> 01:12:10,240 Speaker 1: When he gets out, he is now thirty nine years old. Um, 1331 01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:12,160 Speaker 1: and he is. He kind of doesn't have a whole 1332 01:12:12,200 --> 01:12:15,160 Speaker 1: lot of options, right. He can either he can force 1333 01:12:15,200 --> 01:12:17,439 Speaker 1: his way back into civilian life and find a job 1334 01:12:17,479 --> 01:12:20,360 Speaker 1: that will take a convicted child molester, uh and kind 1335 01:12:20,360 --> 01:12:23,479 Speaker 1: of just scraped by on the margins. Or he can 1336 01:12:23,479 --> 01:12:26,160 Speaker 1: get ahead again the only way he'd ever known how, 1337 01:12:26,680 --> 01:12:30,320 Speaker 1: by being exactly by being the most violent fascist son 1338 01:12:30,320 --> 01:12:33,120 Speaker 1: of a bitch he could be. It just happens that 1339 01:12:33,240 --> 01:12:35,720 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six is a pretty good year to be 1340 01:12:35,840 --> 01:12:38,439 Speaker 1: that guy. So that is the first year of the 1341 01:12:38,479 --> 01:12:41,559 Speaker 1: Spanish Civil War, which is maybe the best time in 1342 01:12:41,640 --> 01:12:44,559 Speaker 1: history to be a German combat veteran with zero morals. 1343 01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:48,920 Speaker 1: Um so dura Wanger. He's lost most of his connections 1344 01:12:48,960 --> 01:12:51,439 Speaker 1: because of the whole molesting a child thing, but he 1345 01:12:51,520 --> 01:12:54,800 Speaker 1: still has one friend, a guy named Gottlab Burger that 1346 01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:57,759 Speaker 1: he had these they had been war buddies, right. Burger 1347 01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:00,519 Speaker 1: had risen to a pretty respectable rank within the New 1348 01:13:00,760 --> 01:13:02,640 Speaker 1: s S which is again, the SS is pretty new 1349 01:13:02,720 --> 01:13:05,439 Speaker 1: organization at this point, and Burger is fairly well placed 1350 01:13:05,439 --> 01:13:07,760 Speaker 1: in it. So Burger puts in a good word for 1351 01:13:07,800 --> 01:13:11,439 Speaker 1: his old friend to have Oscar serve with Germany's military 1352 01:13:11,479 --> 01:13:15,240 Speaker 1: expedition in Spain. The Condor legion, right, and I'm gonna 1353 01:13:15,280 --> 01:13:17,120 Speaker 1: quote next from a right up in the fifth field 1354 01:13:17,120 --> 01:13:20,400 Speaker 1: here here he helped train Spanish cruise in tank warfare. 1355 01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:23,240 Speaker 1: After arriving in Spain in April of nineteen thirty seven, 1356 01:13:23,520 --> 01:13:26,439 Speaker 1: his commander Oberst Ritter von Tooma of the German Army 1357 01:13:26,680 --> 01:13:29,960 Speaker 1: rated his performance in Spain as outstanding. For his superior 1358 01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:33,400 Speaker 1: service there, darrow Winger received the Spanish Campaign Medal, the 1359 01:13:33,439 --> 01:13:36,519 Speaker 1: Spanish Military Service Cross, and the Spanish Cross and Silver. 1360 01:13:36,760 --> 01:13:39,479 Speaker 1: Oscar darrow Winger returned to Germany from Spain in May 1361 01:13:39,479 --> 01:13:42,280 Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty nine, and commenting on his past, durrow 1362 01:13:42,280 --> 01:13:44,719 Speaker 1: Winger said, at this point, even though I did wrong, 1363 01:13:44,880 --> 01:13:50,599 Speaker 1: I never committed a crime. I gotta you gotta love 1364 01:13:50,640 --> 01:13:54,519 Speaker 1: someone who's willing to be accountable. Yeah, it's amazing, Like 1365 01:13:55,439 --> 01:14:00,360 Speaker 1: what a what a way to refer to molesting a child? Right? 1366 01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:05,080 Speaker 1: Show me where in Sevaimo Republic Constitution. It says that 1367 01:14:05,120 --> 01:14:09,679 Speaker 1: I can't molest child, so tell me where this is. Basically, 1368 01:14:09,760 --> 01:14:12,840 Speaker 1: the deal is that you help us brutally suppress the 1369 01:14:12,960 --> 01:14:16,320 Speaker 1: left in this civil war, and we will pretend you 1370 01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:19,320 Speaker 1: didn't molest that child, right like that. That is literally 1371 01:14:19,400 --> 01:14:22,080 Speaker 1: the deal that the Nazis make um And this is 1372 01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:23,680 Speaker 1: like signed off. I believe Himler is one of the 1373 01:14:23,680 --> 01:14:25,840 Speaker 1: people who signs off on it. At a pretty high level. 1374 01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:28,280 Speaker 1: This is signed off because what he's done is bad 1375 01:14:28,320 --> 01:14:30,120 Speaker 1: and he probably this is something we don't have a 1376 01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:32,559 Speaker 1: lot of context on, but probably he also did piss 1377 01:14:32,600 --> 01:14:35,559 Speaker 1: off people who were influential by doing this. So when 1378 01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:38,120 Speaker 1: Dura Wanger returns home, his government is in the final 1379 01:14:38,200 --> 01:14:41,880 Speaker 1: stages of planning its invasion of Poland. Now this is 1380 01:14:41,920 --> 01:14:44,479 Speaker 1: going to be a different sort of conflict than the 1381 01:14:44,520 --> 01:14:47,080 Speaker 1: one that the Reich had faced, a mass war, with 1382 01:14:47,120 --> 01:14:50,400 Speaker 1: German troops facing the brunt of enemy engagement, not Spanish 1383 01:14:50,400 --> 01:14:54,240 Speaker 1: soldiers who were like just dudes. The fear of every 1384 01:14:54,280 --> 01:14:57,280 Speaker 1: general in this kind of a war is rural saboteurs 1385 01:14:57,400 --> 01:15:00,200 Speaker 1: or insurgents. Now, the German army has a law long 1386 01:15:00,200 --> 01:15:02,640 Speaker 1: and nasty history fighting such men. A lot of the 1387 01:15:02,640 --> 01:15:05,080 Speaker 1: war crimes they commit in World War One are dealing 1388 01:15:05,120 --> 01:15:09,719 Speaker 1: with these sabbo tours, um, So they've got experience fighting 1389 01:15:09,760 --> 01:15:12,640 Speaker 1: these guys, but also a lot of their experiences that 1390 01:15:12,720 --> 01:15:15,080 Speaker 1: like it's really hard to capture these guys, and the 1391 01:15:15,120 --> 01:15:17,960 Speaker 1: things that make normal soldiers good at being normal soldiers 1392 01:15:17,960 --> 01:15:21,040 Speaker 1: tend to make them bad at fighting insurgencies, right, like 1393 01:15:21,320 --> 01:15:25,680 Speaker 1: not entirely transferable sets of skills. So in order to 1394 01:15:25,680 --> 01:15:29,439 Speaker 1: train people to do that, the Nazi high brass and 1395 01:15:29,439 --> 01:15:31,360 Speaker 1: this is decisions being made at like the Hitler level, 1396 01:15:31,560 --> 01:15:33,840 Speaker 1: are like, we should probably what if we were to 1397 01:15:33,880 --> 01:15:38,720 Speaker 1: make a unit entirely out of criminals, specifically poachers, right, 1398 01:15:39,120 --> 01:15:42,920 Speaker 1: guys whose job is to go into the woods, survive 1399 01:15:43,040 --> 01:15:47,000 Speaker 1: off the land, hunt and kill things and not get caught. Right, 1400 01:15:47,160 --> 01:15:49,720 Speaker 1: And that's not a bad line of thinking, right, Like, 1401 01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:52,360 Speaker 1: if you're like, who's gonna be good at hunting down insurgents, well, 1402 01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:55,040 Speaker 1: poachers probably actually probably wouldn't be pretty get at that 1403 01:15:55,160 --> 01:15:58,200 Speaker 1: job there. Yeah, And then you know, so that the 1404 01:15:58,280 --> 01:16:00,080 Speaker 1: idea is we're going to like take men that we 1405 01:16:00,160 --> 01:16:03,360 Speaker 1: have in prison for these poaching crimes and we're going 1406 01:16:03,439 --> 01:16:06,760 Speaker 1: to turn them into commandos. Now, during his time in Spain, 1407 01:16:06,880 --> 01:16:09,479 Speaker 1: Durlanger has redeemed himself in the eyes of the Nazis. 1408 01:16:09,560 --> 01:16:12,000 Speaker 1: His convictions get ann oled and he gets his doctorate back. 1409 01:16:12,000 --> 01:16:16,800 Speaker 1: They give him back his PhD um. So yeah, I 1410 01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:25,839 Speaker 1: got my certific. Yes, I'm going to frame it again. 1411 01:16:26,080 --> 01:16:28,360 Speaker 1: So as these Nazi leaders turned to the task of 1412 01:16:28,479 --> 01:16:31,240 Speaker 1: like finding a guy, who are gonna who's gonna run 1413 01:16:31,280 --> 01:16:35,840 Speaker 1: this this criminal unit, naturally they're like, well, this guy 1414 01:16:35,920 --> 01:16:39,639 Speaker 1: actually number one, he's fought insurgents for us in Germany. 1415 01:16:39,760 --> 01:16:41,759 Speaker 1: We know he's good at it. He's good at normal 1416 01:16:41,800 --> 01:16:47,960 Speaker 1: soldier stuff, and like them, he's a terrible criminal. So yeah, yeah, yeah, 1417 01:16:48,000 --> 01:16:50,000 Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, he's molested a child, he's got a 1418 01:16:50,000 --> 01:16:52,519 Speaker 1: severe alcohol and drug problem, but like we're sending him 1419 01:16:52,560 --> 01:16:55,519 Speaker 1: to Poland where it's fine for him to do all that, right, 1420 01:16:55,720 --> 01:16:58,479 Speaker 1: we don't care who he molests in Poland or how 1421 01:16:58,560 --> 01:17:00,720 Speaker 1: fucked up he as well, he does it, get him 1422 01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:06,200 Speaker 1: over there. So that is how Oscar Darrel Wanger becomes 1423 01:17:06,240 --> 01:17:09,000 Speaker 1: the commandant of what will become known to history as 1424 01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:11,599 Speaker 1: the Darrell Wanger Brigade. And that's a story we're gonna 1425 01:17:11,640 --> 01:17:17,200 Speaker 1: get into in part Do I am I excited about 1426 01:17:17,240 --> 01:17:23,720 Speaker 1: it because this guy's I just I feel that all 1427 01:17:23,720 --> 01:17:25,400 Speaker 1: the crimes that you've talked, and there have been a 1428 01:17:25,479 --> 01:17:29,760 Speaker 1: lot of, he has committed a significant number, yes, already, 1429 01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:32,320 Speaker 1: And now I'm like, oh, now we're gonna let this 1430 01:17:32,360 --> 01:17:35,840 Speaker 1: fucking Tasmanian double loose. This is uh, it's gonna get 1431 01:17:35,880 --> 01:17:39,960 Speaker 1: bad and depressing. Yeah, this guy is already pretty bad, dude, 1432 01:17:39,960 --> 01:17:43,360 Speaker 1: and he's about to get sent to Poland right, Um, yeah, 1433 01:17:43,439 --> 01:17:47,639 Speaker 1: I want you in the gun train was in the press, Yeah, yeah, 1434 01:17:48,280 --> 01:17:51,320 Speaker 1: trade is before he was really that bad. Honestly, the 1435 01:17:51,360 --> 01:17:54,200 Speaker 1: wind up was guy had gun training a miss gun 1436 01:17:54,240 --> 01:17:57,519 Speaker 1: train in a second. Before we do that, I feel 1437 01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:00,680 Speaker 1: like the only proper way to end is, Matt, I 1438 01:18:00,720 --> 01:18:02,360 Speaker 1: want you to go to Google, and I want you 1439 01:18:02,400 --> 01:18:04,639 Speaker 1: to type in the name Oscar Darrel Winger. I want 1440 01:18:04,640 --> 01:18:09,040 Speaker 1: you to see what this motherfucker looks like. So A 1441 01:18:09,040 --> 01:18:13,679 Speaker 1: all s K A R D I R L E 1442 01:18:14,040 --> 01:18:22,519 Speaker 1: W A n G E R oh my good makeup 1443 01:18:22,680 --> 01:18:25,080 Speaker 1: cast this guy as an orc in a fucking Lord 1444 01:18:25,120 --> 01:18:28,160 Speaker 1: of the Race show, like he looked or a goblin. 1445 01:18:28,240 --> 01:18:32,800 Speaker 1: Probably he looks like a monster. Fucking just I mean like, 1446 01:18:34,520 --> 01:18:37,720 Speaker 1: we don't like to attack people for who have done 1447 01:18:37,960 --> 01:18:41,320 Speaker 1: actual bad things. For their appearance. But this guy looks 1448 01:18:41,400 --> 01:18:45,040 Speaker 1: like a monster. Like you see this motherfucker in the 1449 01:18:45,080 --> 01:18:47,240 Speaker 1: street and you're like, well, this is a bad person. 1450 01:18:47,920 --> 01:18:51,799 Speaker 1: You could draw this guy just from like just guess, 1451 01:18:51,960 --> 01:18:56,160 Speaker 1: and you are correct. This guy is frighteningly evil looking. 1452 01:18:56,560 --> 01:19:02,880 Speaker 1: Um dead eyes, yeah, mainly evil looking is the perfect description. 1453 01:19:03,600 --> 01:19:08,880 Speaker 1: What a what a monster? Of course he looks exactly 1454 01:19:08,960 --> 01:19:12,880 Speaker 1: like this. It's just he's got just that perfectly skeleton 1455 01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:17,840 Speaker 1: totally skull face right like, yeah, just a skull and 1456 01:19:18,439 --> 01:19:22,559 Speaker 1: receding hairline and just like one of those shitty German 1457 01:19:22,640 --> 01:19:25,800 Speaker 1: mustaches where they're like, we're going to make him, but 1458 01:19:25,880 --> 01:19:28,120 Speaker 1: he didn't fully commit to it. So there's a little 1459 01:19:28,120 --> 01:19:30,320 Speaker 1: bit stick and he kind of is a petal stash, 1460 01:19:30,520 --> 01:19:34,160 Speaker 1: right like, he's got that going on a little bit. Anyway, 1461 01:19:34,200 --> 01:19:38,879 Speaker 1: he's got the it's originally it's the darling that's the stash. 1462 01:19:39,080 --> 01:19:42,040 Speaker 1: I'm I'm not proud of attacking a man for his 1463 01:19:42,040 --> 01:19:45,000 Speaker 1: his his appearance, but take a look at this guy 1464 01:19:45,040 --> 01:19:47,920 Speaker 1: and tell me we shouldn't be right, Like, just get 1465 01:19:47,960 --> 01:19:51,040 Speaker 1: a look at this motherfucker. Just look at him. I 1466 01:19:51,080 --> 01:19:55,200 Speaker 1: feel like I understand the you know, the impulse to 1467 01:19:55,240 --> 01:19:59,000 Speaker 1: be like don't fat shame. It's not about but this guy. 1468 01:19:59,280 --> 01:20:01,439 Speaker 1: This guy looks like the life he's led and the 1469 01:20:01,520 --> 01:20:06,200 Speaker 1: life he's led running a gun train in between committing rape. Yes, yes, 1470 01:20:06,320 --> 01:20:14,920 Speaker 1: exactly anyway, Jeviny, I think you want to plug for us, 1471 01:20:15,000 --> 01:20:22,640 Speaker 1: matt Leeb absolutely, Um, So I have um a new podcast, 1472 01:20:23,040 --> 01:20:26,880 Speaker 1: uh called pod Yourself The Wire. Before we did a 1473 01:20:27,120 --> 01:20:29,880 Speaker 1: Sopranos podcast called pod Yourself an now we're doing the 1474 01:20:29,920 --> 01:20:33,120 Speaker 1: Wire and it's a great show. And um, I would 1475 01:20:33,120 --> 01:20:35,559 Speaker 1: love for y'all to listen to it. And you know, 1476 01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:38,880 Speaker 1: if you're like, no, fuck, I don't want to listen, um, 1477 01:20:39,040 --> 01:20:41,680 Speaker 1: just go to the Apple podcast store and give us 1478 01:20:41,720 --> 01:20:45,320 Speaker 1: five stars in review anyways and then press play and 1479 01:20:45,360 --> 01:20:48,120 Speaker 1: then mute. You don't even have to listen. But if 1480 01:20:48,160 --> 01:20:50,880 Speaker 1: you could just do that five stars in review, get 1481 01:20:51,000 --> 01:20:54,280 Speaker 1: that for us, because I got a fucking baby. I 1482 01:20:54,360 --> 01:20:57,719 Speaker 1: got a baby now, dog Well, yeah, in a couple 1483 01:20:57,720 --> 01:21:00,120 Speaker 1: of weeks, matt Leeb has a baby in a up 1484 01:21:00,120 --> 01:21:05,000 Speaker 1: a low weeks, So go draw, send us all of 1485 01:21:05,040 --> 01:21:11,479 Speaker 1: your art of matt Leeb's baby as Tony soprano, and 1486 01:21:11,600 --> 01:21:13,960 Speaker 1: if you want to, you know, you can make our 1487 01:21:14,000 --> 01:21:19,200 Speaker 1: baby look like Jimmy McNulty, Oh yeah, man, oh yeah. 1488 01:21:19,280 --> 01:21:21,679 Speaker 1: Especially pose it with like a couple of empty bottles, 1489 01:21:21,720 --> 01:21:27,880 Speaker 1: like baby size bottles, little Irish wasted Jimmy McNulty, Yeah, 1490 01:21:28,720 --> 01:21:31,479 Speaker 1: have it, you know, taken a ship and going she she, 1491 01:21:32,160 --> 01:21:35,280 Speaker 1: You know that'll be fun. Little Clay Days, Yeah, do 1492 01:21:35,320 --> 01:21:38,479 Speaker 1: it as Clay Davis. Get a little omar baby costume 1493 01:21:38,600 --> 01:21:42,439 Speaker 1: with like a double barrelled shotgun and yeah, fucking hell yeah. 1494 01:21:42,600 --> 01:21:46,040 Speaker 1: You come at my diapers pressing like something like zigg 1495 01:21:46,479 --> 01:21:49,320 Speaker 1: Botka somehow I don't know. Do it do all the 1496 01:21:49,400 --> 01:21:54,320 Speaker 1: seasons even to which nobody likes. But it is a 1497 01:21:54,720 --> 01:21:59,559 Speaker 1: great season. I like season too. A bunch of polls 1498 01:21:59,680 --> 01:22:01,880 Speaker 1: give it. That's one of the strengths of the show. 1499 01:22:02,000 --> 01:22:05,559 Speaker 1: But now we're veering into your territory. I'm I'm, I've 1500 01:22:05,640 --> 01:22:09,360 Speaker 1: staggered into like the German Army is about to do 1501 01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:19,559 Speaker 1: in Poland, staggering into the wire. Yeah, alright over, Bye bye. 1502 01:22:21,160 --> 01:22:23,920 Speaker 1: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media. 1503 01:22:24,240 --> 01:22:26,840 Speaker 1: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool 1504 01:22:26,920 --> 01:22:29,920 Speaker 1: zone media dot com, or check us out on the 1505 01:22:29,960 --> 01:22:32,639 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 1506 01:22:32,680 --> 01:22:33,440 Speaker 1: your podcasts.